BJP wins Taluk Panchayat elections; anti-climax for Cong

With BJP candidate Gurumalamma emerging victorious as the President of Chamarajanagara Taluk Panchayat, the Congress lost face in the elections held, here, on Monday.

Besides District in-charge Minister H S Mahadev Prasad, there are four other MLAs and even the MP, R Dhruvanarayan, is a Congressman.

The election was necessitated with the resignation of former president Shashikala of the Congress, as her 10-month term, as per the internal agreement of the party, ended.

Gurumallamma from the BJP and Gayathri Gurubasappa from Congress were the two contenders for the post. The Congress failed to win the election despite having a majority.

Out of 28 seats of the TP, Congress has 15, BJP 12 and one Independent, supporting the Congress. Three members from the Congress, Basavanna, Jayasheela Sheshanna and Kanthamani favoured the BJP candidate.

First, 13 members lifted their hands in favour of Gayathri. Later, Gurumallamma secured 14 votes. Basavanna, who was elected on a Congress ticket, was once the president, but was forced to step down because of his anti-party activities. Since then, he has been supporting the BJP. One member of the BJP was absent during the election.

There was confusion for sometime, when Congressmen alleged that their party member Basavanna did not let BJP member Jadeswamy to raise his hands during the election.

Jadeswamy later clarified to Election Officer Kavitha Rajaram that he was in favour of the BJP candidate, following which, Gurumallamma was named the president. Commotion prevailed as members from both the parties took to heated exchange of words.