The opposition Congress, which is the single largest party in the Zilla Panchayat, held the ruling JD(S)-BJP combine to ransom during the election to the standing committees, and succeeded in bagging the president’s post for the Health and Education standing committee, here, on Thursday.
As per a compromise formula a JD(S) member and an Independent were elected unanimously to the remaining two committees for a tenure of 20 months. JD(S) member Beerihundi Basavanna, representing Beerihundi constituency, was elected to the Social Justice standing committee. Congress member H E Jayalakshmi Rajanna from Chilkunda constituency, in Hunsur taluk, was chosen for Health and Education standing committee and Independent H S Dayanandamurthy from Heggadahalli constituency, in Nanjangud taluk, has been elected to the top post of the standing committee for Agriculture and Industries.
ZP president Nayeema Sulthana and vice-president G Nataraj are the ex-officio heads of the Finance and Auditing standing committee and the General standing committee, respectively. Following the election, Chief Executive Officer P Shivashankar, who is also the returning officer, declared the three as elected unopposed.
Earlier in the day, the ZP members and all party leaders, including MLAs G T Devegowda, Vasu, and Chikkamadu, Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council Marithibbegowda and others held a meeting and arrived at a compromise formula.
Members come prepared
Congress members had expected elections to the posts of president and had come prepared. They had rehearsed the voting pattern at a resort in Hunsur on Wednesday. The party had hired a retired employee of the Election Commission to guide the voters.
“The election and voting process is different from that of election for the post of ZP president and vice president. The elections process for standing committees is based on preferential votes and the counting may go up to two days. Thus, we had conducted a session on the process of election and voting,” said DCC president Dr B J Vijaykumar.
Delayed
Though the election was not conducted, the process to elect presidents was delayed by more than two-and-a-half hours. The meeting, which was scheduled for 11 am, started at 1.25 pm as the members were busy negotiating for the posts with leaders. Though a majority of the members were present on the ZP premises, they did not come to meeting venue till 1 pm. The officials, including CEO Shivashankar, were seen waiting for the members at the venue from 11 am.
The electorate for electing standing committee presidents in Mysuru ZP, which has a strength of 49 members, consist of 74 members including three MPs, 11 MLAs and seven Taluk Panchayat presidents. The Congress tops the list with 37, followed by JD(S) 26, BJP 10 and one Independent.
Postponements
It has to be recalled that earlier four meetings, scheduled to elect the members to the committees, had to be cancelled. While two meetings, scheduled for July 5 and August 25, were postponed owing to lack of quorum, two meetings, on August 5 and 11, were cancelled due to other reasons.