The suspense over the Mayoral polls in Mysuru ended on Tuesday afternoon with the BJP bagging both the coveted posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor with the election of its candidates Shivakumar and G. Roopa respectively.
Though no single party commanded a majority of its own in the 65-member Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), a last minute understanding between the BJP and JD(S) to share the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively paved the way for the election of Mr. Shivakumar, a three-time corporator representing Ward No. 47, as the Mayor of Mysuru.
However, the calculations of the JD(S) went awry when the candidature of its candidate Reshma Banu was rejected because her nomination papers were not accompanied by Backward Class A certificate, the category to which the post of Deputy Mayor was reserved.
The BJP candidate G. Roopa, who was in the fray, was eventually elected Deputy Mayor with the backing of the JD(S). Ms Roopa is a first-time corporator representing Ward Number 53.
Regional Commissioner of Mysuru G.C. Prakash, who was also the Returning Officer for the elections, announced the names of winners of the Mayoral polls in the afternoon.
Earlier in the day, BJP’s Shivakumar had filed the nomination papers along with Congress’ Syed Hasrathulla and JD(S) nominee K.V. Sridhar. After the BJP tied up with JD(S), Mr. Sridhar withdrew his nomination. BJP candidate Shivakumar bagged a total of 47 votes against Syed Hasrathulla’s 28 votes.
Drama began soon after the process of Deputy Mayor’s election began with Reshma Banu of JD(S), Ms. Roopa of BJP and Shobha Sunil of Congress entering the fray along with Nirmala Harish of the JD(S), who filed her nomination as a rebel.
When Ms. Banu’s candidature was rejected in view of her failure to include a Backward Class A certificate along with her nomination papers, the Congress’ Shobha Sunil also withdrew her candidature after the party decided to back Ms. Harish, who had incidentally cross-voted in favour of the Congress during the election to the post of Mayor.
But, the JD(S) was against backing Ms. Harish, who was not their official candidate. Instead, the party plumped for BJP candidate Ms. Roopa, which helped the saffron party bag both the coveted posts in the elections. The BJP, which bagged the post of Mayor for the first time when its candidate Sunanda Palanetra was elected to the post last year, made history on Tuesday by bagging both the coveted posts for the first time in MCC.
The electoral college for the Mayoral polls in Mysuru comprised one MP, four MLAs and six MLCs, besides 65 members of the MCC, taking the total number of voters to 76. MP Pratap Simha, MLAs S.A. Ramdas, L. Nagendra, Tanveer Sait and G.T. Deve Gowda, besides MLCs A.H. Vishwanath, Madhu Made Gowda, Dinesh Gooligowda, Thimmaiah and C.N. Manje Gowda enjoyed voting rights in the Mayoral polls.
