Third time corporator B N Manjunath Reddy of the Congress and political greenhorn S P Hemalatha of JD(S) were elected Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Bengaluru, respectively, on Friday.
Reddy and Hemalatha defeated their BJP rivals by a margin of three votes. The voting took place on expected lines with the Congress-JD(S)-Independents alliance bagging 131 votes, the number required to win the mayoral polls.
The BJP candidates for mayor and deputy mayor posts, Manjunatha Raju and H C Nagarathna, respectively, polled 128 votes. Of the total 260 voters in the electoral college, only Rajya Sabha member Vijay Mallya was absent.
The BJP’s hopes were dashed as no “magic” took place to tilt the numbers in its favour. None of the voters from the rival camp abstained.
Apart from the seven Independents, Rajya Sabha member B Jayashree (nominated) and MLC Raghu Achar (Independent) supported the Congress-JD(S) candidates.
Besides the votes of its corporators, legislators and MPs, the BJP got votes of Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrashekar and MLC D U Mallikarjuna (both Independents).
Even after taking their candidates and allies to resorts and bringing them back just in time for polls, Congress leaders were running a tight ship. In fact, their paranoia of losing even a single vote presented some comical moments.
Even as some corporators were walking out of the council to take a break, senior Congress leaders did not stop short of following them and bringing them back to their seats.
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