JOIN USUdupi ZP poll to elect chiefs postpones to October 12
The elections held for the post of President and Vice President of Udupi Zilla Panchayat for the second period was postponed to October 12 owing to lack of quorum in the House here on Thursday.
Speaking to media persons, Mysore Division Revenue Commissioner M V Jayanti who is in-charge of the election process, said that the polls held for President and Vice President posts of Zilla Panchayat have been postponed for the next week on October 12 as there was insufficient quorum in the House to conduct the process.
She said there will be opportunities for scrutiny and withdrawal and no nomination is allowed. As many as five nominations each have been received for both president and vice president posts. The members will be sent circular on the same for October 12 polls, she said.
Retorting to the query over the possible action by the Commissioner if at all repetition of the incident takes place on October 12, the Commissioner said that she will follow the rules and regulations and send report to the government over the chain of events that took place.
According to the Section 180 (2) (C) of Panchayat Raj Act, there should be nearly 50 per cent of the total number of members in the House to maintain quorum. The Commissioner said that the election process was delayed for half an hour expecting the fulfillment of required quorum.
Only nine members of Congress were present in the House. All BJP members including the members of rebel faction remained absent.
The high profile melodrama within BJP that has led to the division of BJP Zilla Panchayat members into two factions has aroused out of the strong desire of BJP rebel faction towards the post of ZP President. It is said that eight members rebel group in BJP wants to take revenge that was meted out to the former Kundapur MLA Haladi Srinivas Poojary. It may be recalled that Haladi was denied the ministerial berth in the state cabinet.
The total number of members in Zilla Panchayat is 25, of which 16 members are from the BJP and the remaining nine are from the Congress.
Among 16 BJP members, as many as eight have recognised themselves with Haladi Srinivas Poojary. The members in rebel faction are Gowri Devadiga, Ganapathy Sriyan, Mamatha Shetty, Indira Shetty, Rashwath Shetty, Jyoti Seetharam Shetty, Prakash T Mendon and aspirant for president post Babu Shetty, he said.
The members of BJP rebel faction have gone to the extent of giving a letter to ZP CEO Prabhakar Sharma demanding separate seating arrangements in the House for them. They are also confident that the anti defection law cannot be applied to them as they constitute 50 per cent of the strength of BJP.
The post of the president is open for a candidate from general category. The post of vice president is reserved for backward Classes “B” woman candidate. Of the five nominations filed for president’s post, Diwaker Kunder from Congress has filed two nominations, the rebel faction candidate K Babu Shetty, BJP candidate Upendra Nayak and Prakash T Mendon from rebel faction are among other nominees.
Indira Shetty from BJP and Mamatha R Shetty from BJP rebel faction and Supreetha D Shetty from Congress have filed two nominations each.
Jayanti said that the Zilla Panchayat Social Justice Committee President Upendra Nayak will be in charge till the new president is elected. The term of the outgoing ZP President Katpadi Shankar Poojary will get end on October 8, she said.