Sampath Raj is new mayor, Padmavathi N his deputy

Both of them elected unanimously as BJP members stage walkout

 R Sampath Raj, the three-time Congress corporator from Deverajeevanahalli (DJ Halli), was unanimously elected the 51st mayor of Bengaluru on Thursday. Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy of the JD (S), the corporator from Rajagopala Nagar, was elected the 50th deputy mayor.

Two corporators each were contesting the elections for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor. Sampath Raj's rival was S Muniswamy, the BJP corporator from Kadugodi. Padmavathi's rival was Mamatha Vasudev of the BJP.

Even before the election could begin, BJP members protested for 45 minutes in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Council, alleging manipulations during previous elections and boycotted the polls. In 2016, eight MLCs of the Congress and the JD(S) had misled the election commission and cast their vote by including their names in the voters' list. The BBMP electoral college comprises corporators, MPs, MLAs and MLCs.

After the BJP members' walkout, the election was a cakewalk for Sampath Raj. BJP members staged a walkout before the regional commissioner could call the name of the party's candidate, Muniswamy.

Sampath Raj got 139 out of 266 votes while Padmavathi secured 138 votes. Though all the 139 members raised their hands to vote for the post of deputy mayor,
P R Ramesh was not present while signing his name, which lowered the number to 138.

Both Sampath Raj and Padmavathi later met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Regional Commissioner M Jayanthi, Deputy Commissioner V Shankar and BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad were present during the polls. After the polls, Congress members urged the regional commissioner to take stringent action against BJP members for causing a ruckus in the BBMP council.

Who said what?

"Sampath Raj is an efficient person and since he is an engineer, he would ensure the development of the city. He is a good and able administrator. In fact, the brimming of lakes across the city following the recent rain is a good omen for the next mayor." — outgoing mayor G Padmavathi

"Most of the works started during the term of the outgoing mayor have reached the tendering stage. All these works will be implemented now. We will strive to make the city beautiful." — BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad

"He (the mayor) has to address the difficulties that people are going through due to rain." — Kavitha Raji, wife of Sampath Raj

"I'm very happy the city has got a new mayor. He should give more importance to roads and provide amenities." — Prema Raji, sister of Sampath Raj.