Quota for mayoral posts announced

The reservation for mayorals posts of Tumakuru Mahanagara Palike (TMP) has been announced.  

Accordingly, the mayor's position will go to a Scheduled Caste candidate while a woman from General category. This will be last year of the current city corporation council.

The term of the present mayor and deputy mayor will end on March 4. The election for the mayoral posts should be held within this date. But the election date has not been announced yet.

The city corporation has 35 members and no party has a clear majority. BJP, Congress and JD(S) are at the helm of affairs on the basis of adjustment for the last four years. The adjustment is also likely to be continued this time.

Congress and JD(S) can together form an alliance and get power. They can give an opportunity to BJP in standing committees, as it is currently. The JD(S) may insist that its candidate should be the mayor as it it an election year. Then, it is interesting to see what will the Congress do.

JD(S) can now go with either Congress or BJP. But it is to be seen whether it will wrest the mayor's position or will give that post to Congress. It should also be seen whether the Congress will be satisified with the deputy mayor's post.

A corporator said the competition for the mayor's post is tough. The party will supports mayor's position for a particular party will get the deputy mayor's position. But the candidate, who becomes the mayor, should be liberal in dealings as it is an election year, he added.

Also, the corridor of the city corporation office is abuzz with the rumour whether the corporators will listen to their leaders. They do not have confirmation about contesting the election as the reservation list may change. Women will get 50% reservation. Hence, the corporators may jumb here and there, it is learnt.

Meanwhile, Congress has two members - Sudheeshwar and Yashoda Srinivas - who belong to SC category. Among them, Yashoda Srinivas has already been a mayor.

A source said KPCC president G Parameshwara may support Sudheeshwar. But Sudheeshwar had a tiff with MLA Rafeeq Ahmed. They have patched up now. One has to see what will be the MLA's stand now, he added.

JD(S) has two SC members - H R Hanumantharayappa and Lokesh. Hanumantharayappa, a former Opposition leader, is one of the strong contenders for the mayor's post. A source said his future is based on the stand to be taken by MLA S R Srinivas.

In BJP, M N Venkatesh is an SC member and it is said that the party wil not show interest in the mayoral election. With this, it is said that Sudheeshwar or Hanumantharayappa will be become the next mayor.