Jammu, May 18 (IANS) With candidates backed by it registering major wins in the Jammu and Kashmir panchayat elections, an elated Congress says it's a sign of the party's growing popularity at the grassroots.

 
 Although the 16-phase polls are held on a non-party basis, all parties have sponsored candidates and supported them with men and money. And the Congress, an ally in the ruling coalition, has done well.
 
 “We are satisfied with the results so far,” state Congress chief Saifuddin Soz told party colleagues here Tuesday.
 
 He also exhorted them to “work hard and get more and more party candidates elected in the panchayat polls”, a party leader present at the meeting told IANS.
 
 In the Jammu region, the Congress has been the biggest beneficiary in the panchayat polls.
 
 Jugal Kishore Sharma, a former minister and senior Congress leader, told IANS that out of 76 panchayat seats in Reasi assembly constituency, the party supported candidates have won in 52.
 
 Many believe the party has found favour with voters after the cash for votes scandal in the legislative council elections tarnished the image of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
 
 “The bad image of the BJP has helped our candidates,” said Sharma, who lost the 2008 assembly elections to his BJP rival.
 
 His BJP rival Baldev Raj is among the seven legislators suspended by the BJP national leadership for cross-voting during the April 13 legislative council elections.
 
 Independent observers felt the BJP's loss has been the Congress gain.
 
 In the valley, Soz felicitated newly elected panches and sarpanches (village heads and village council heads).
 
 He claimed the “Congress had won the majority of seats of panches and sarpanches in many of the assembly segments represented by non-Congress legislators”.
 
 The Congress has only three legislators from the valley.
 
 Enthused by its success, the Congress is now mounting pressure on the government to announce the municipal elections which were supposed to have been held in February 2010 but were postponed in the interest of the “tourist season in Kashmir".
 
 “We want the elections to be held in autumn and we have started the process of selecting our candidates,” Soz told party workers.
 
 “We are on the march and we hope the panchayat elections would reveal the real strength of the party at the grassroots,” Deputy Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Tara Chand told IANS.
 
 The panchayat polls began April 13 and will be on till June 18.