The Third Additional District Court disqualified Kalaburagi Mahanagara Palike (KMP) member Priyanka Ambareesh from the corporation for giving false information about her age to the Election Commission.
She won as a BJP candidate from Ward Number 24 in the recently held election to the KMP. While filing her nomination for the KMP polls, Priyanka submitted that her age was 21. Her opponent had objected to the submission. As there were no documents to substantiate the objection, the election officer had accepted Priyanka's nomination papers.
Syeda Noor Fatima, who was defeated by a slender margin, then received documents under the Right to Information Act about Priyanka. She then moved the court stating that Priyanka had not crossed 21 and that she should be disqualified from the KMP membership.
Syeda appealed to the court to declare her the winner as per the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act. After going through the documents and witness statements during the case, the court disqualified Priyanka from the councillorship and ordered that Syeda Noor Fatima take over the position.
It is a setback for the BJP, which had set its sights on the mayoral election. The BJP's City District President Siddaji Patil said, "We will challenge the order of the local court in the High Court and will seek a stay."