Election to the post of Mayor of Ballari, which was scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed at the 11th hour for unknown reasons. Members of the civic body, cutting across party lines, condemned the postponement of the election and termed it as the handiwork of vested interests.
D. Triveni, who served as Mayor for eight months, recently resigned from the post, necessitating the Mayoral polls.
The election was then scheduled for Tuesday.
BJP member Hanumantha Gudigante, Congress candidates V. Kubera and B. Shwetha and Independent candidate Srinivas Minchu filed their nomination papers in the morning on Tuesday.
Voting was to start by 12.30 p.m. However, Regional Commissioner (Kalaburagi) and Returning Officer Krishna Bajpai did not reach the election hall.
After waiting for over an hour, Additional Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Zuber, who received the nomination papers in the morning, suddenly announced that the election has been postponed for what he said “some reason”.
When enraged elected members of the civic body sought to know the reason for the postponement of the election, Mr. Zuber simply said that they will be notified later.
He told the media as well that the election has been postponed as per the directions of the Regional Commissioner.
Meanwhile, the elected members pressed in vain for the election to be held as per schedule.
BJP members even staged a demonstration at Gadagi Chennappa Circle saying that the Regional Commissioner has misused his power to act as a puppet in the hands of the ruling Congress.
By evening, Mr. Bajpai issued an official note attributing “some reason” for the postponement of the scheduled election. He has rescheduled it for December 19.
“It is a blatant violation of the law. If the postponement of the Mayoral election was absolutely necessary, the authorities should have announced it a day before, with a valid reason. They postponed it at the 11th hour when the elected members were waiting for voting to begin. It is misuse of power by the bureaucracy. It goes against the very spirit of democracy,” member of the civic body M. Prabhanjan Kumar told The Hindu.
Mr. Bajpai could not be contacted for comments.
Party position
In the 39-member House, the Congress has 21 members followed by the BJP with 13, while there are five Independents.
The Mayoral polls were delayed for a year due to COVID-19 and Rajeshwari Subbaraidu of the Congress was elected to the post in March 2022.
As per an internal understanding among her party members, she resigned from the post on March 18, 2023.
Election was held to fill the post on March 29, 2023 and D. Triveni of the Congress was elected as the Mayor with a condition that she will remain in the post for six months. She resigned on November 4, 2023.
Fighting in Congress
The postponement of the Mayoral polls has revealed the intense internal fight within the Ballari unit of the Congress.
As per well-placed sources in the party, many Congress members wanted to make Srinivas Minchu, Independent candidate, the new Mayor.
However, Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports, and Tribal Welfare and Ballari in-charge B. Nagendra wanted his loyal follower B. Shwetha to occupy the post.
The BJP, meanwhile, made all efforts to capture power by taking advantage of the split in the Congress.
