Sampath Raj ready to be Mayor and MLA

Putting an end to speculations about him resigning from his position as Mayor, R Sampath Raj has made it clear that he would continue to hold the post if he is elected to the Assembly.

"I will not resign as Mayor if I'm elected," Raj, Congress candidate from CV Raman Nagar, said.

A senior Palike official also quoted the Representation of the People Act to say that there is scope for an individual to hold the dual positions of a Mayor and Member of the Legislative Assembly, if the mayoral elections are due in six months.

"Since the present Mayor's (Raj) term would end by September, he could actually hold both the positions," the official said.

Senior Congress leader P R Ramesh also endorsed the view. "A Mayor can hold both posts since he is not being paid extra for the post. He is just like any other councillor," he said.

At CV Raman Nagar, Raj is facing a strong challenge from BJP candidate S Raghu, JD(S)' Ramesh Kumar and AAP's Mohan Dasari.

He recently met residents of Indiranagar under the banner 'I Change Indiranagar' and received the manifesto they drafted.

Among the councillors who held the post of MLA was M Diwakara, former president of the Ballari City Municipal Council, who won the Assembly polls in 1994.

Bhaktavatsalam from Robertsonpet in Kolar Gold Fields also won as the candidate in the Assembly polls when he was president of the city municipal council. N L Narendra Babu was MLA of Rajajinagar when he was the Nagapura ward councillor.

On whether he could perform well in both the positions, Raj said, "Developing the whole of Bengaluru is what I kept in mind when I became Mayor. I'll continue to give importance to all 28 Assembly segments in the city."