In the last phase, polling took place Saturday in Gulbarga district for the 43 district and 155 sub-district panchayats with over 60 percent of the 1.19 million voters exercising their franchise.

"Over 60 percent voting has taken place," a state Election Commission official said.

Voting took place Dec. 26 in 12 districts and on Dec. 31 in 17 districts.

Counting is slated for Jan 4. Most of the results for the 1,013 ZP and 3,659 TP seats across the state are expected by noon as electronic voting machines were used for the first time in these polls which are held every five years.

Yeddyurappa, heading the first Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka, is heavily banking on winning majority of local governing bodies for continuing in office in the face of charges of favoring kin with prime land in and around Bangalore. He has been allowed to continue in office by his party central leaders after he convinced them that charges against him would not affect the party's prospects in these polls in rural and semi-urban areas.

The BJP had fared poorly in the 2005 ZP and TP polls though it had emerged the single largest party, with 79 of the 225 seats, in the assembly in the 2004 polls.

Now the party is in power for the first time in south India and has bested the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular in all elections held after the 2008 assembly polls.

The party bagged 19 of the 28 Parliament seats in the 2009 polls, won several by-polls to the assembly since 2008 and captured the Bangalore city corporation for the first time in last year's elections. Since Yeddyurappa led the party to victory in the assembly and subsequent polls, a poor show in the district elections, coupled with nepotism charges against him, would make it easy for the party leadership to ease him out.

Yeddyurappa has vigorously campaigned for the polls and is confident that BJP will win at least 22 district  and over 100 sub-districts councils.