JOIN USRuckus and walkout mar Co-op Union elections
Ghattakamadenahalli Shantamma was elected the new President of the Union while the post of the Vice-president was won by K R Beerappa.
The BJP had recently managed to win for itself the post of the president of the Kolar-Chikkaballapur Milk Union through its Operation Kamala. Now, it has won the posts of the President and Vice-president of the Kolar District Cooperative Union too.
The victory, however, was far from easy and straight. The auditorium of the Union was filled with sounds of ruckus, tumult, people pushing and accusing each other and, finally, a walk-out.
Political fight
Shantamma, S R Rudraswami and S Prakash had filed nominations for the post of the president while Beerappa, B Manjunath and M Venkataraddy was nominated for the post of the vice-president.
A tough contest had ensued between the JD(S) and the BJP candidates for both the posts.
JD(S) was also supported by Congress. The parties had made desperate attempts to bring Rudraswami to the post of the president and Manjunath or Venkataraddy to be the vice-president.
BJP, however, had tried all its election tactics from Wednesday. M S Anand, who leads the Karamangala Society, had no membership of the Union. Therefore, The joint managers of the Cooperative Union sent out an order on Wednesday, making Anand ineligible to contest the elections.
Shantamma, Vimalamma and Nalini, who were contesting as JD(S) candidates moved to BJP. State Cooperative Union representative Madivalappa, Kolar-Chikkaballapur Milk Producers’ Union President Ramesh also moved to BJP.
For the first time, the State Government nominated Timmarayappa from Kolar, Umadevi from Srinivaspura and Venkatappa from Bangarpet to the Union. Since the three nominees participated in the elections supporting the BJP candidates, BJP got 13 of the 22 voters.
Tumult during elections
The pro-BJP directors demanded an expulsion of M S Anand from the Union, since the post held by Anand no longer existed. Anand, however, refused to oblige.
He said that his membership had been cancelled the previous night through a conspiracy. “I have not been issued prior notice as per the rules, therefore, I shall not quit,” said Anand.
He insisted that M Govindagowda cannot occupy the seat of the presidetn of the election committee since there is no quorum.
In response, the director, who was in the election room, and the activists outside started shouting suddenly, leading to a tense situation. Some of the policemen who were guarding the entrance to the ground floor had let a few BJP activists in. The people in the election room started shoving one another.
BJP district unit President Lakshmayya was permitted into the room. This encouraged the party activists who started verbally abusing Anand and told him to get out of the room.
Rudraswami and 10 directors who were his supporters walked out in disgust.
Celebrations
After the elections, BJP leaders and activists celebrated the victory by bursting crackers.
Leaders Surendra Gowda, D L Nagaraj, Shankaregowda, Krishna Reddy, Krishnappa, Hosarayappa, Mutyalamma, Padmamma and Chalapati were present. City Circle Inspector Nandakumar led the security force for the elections.