JOIN USCongress back to power in Mysore ZP
Congress party avenged the humiliation suffered at the hands of Janata Dal (Secular) and BJP combine during the mayoral polls of Mysore City Corporation (MCC), by wresting power from the same partners in the elections held to the posts of president and vice-president of Zilla Panchayat here on Wednesday.
Two members of BJP who have identified with KJP became the game changers, helping Congress catapult to the seat of power.
M Mahadev representing Hinkal constituency and a close confidante of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was elected president and Bhramarambha Mallikarjuna Swamy of Sosale constituency was elected as vice-president.
Both Mahadev, popularly known as Koorgalli Mahadev, and Bhramarambha secured 23 votes against their lone rivals Nalinakshi Venkatesh and M J Geetha respectively, who had to be content with 21 votes. The president’s post was reserved for general category and vice-president for BCM (A) category.
Regional Commissioner M V Jayanthi who was the presiding officer for the polls announced that the successful candidates will be having nine months term ending on June 10, 2014.
Nominations
All the four candidates had filed their nomination in two sets. When none of the candidates withdrew the papers, election was held with the members raising their hands in support of the candidates as and when their names were announced.
Two absent
One member each of Congress and JD(S) stayed away from the elections triggering speculations. However, the air was cleared later by the party leaders announcing that both Shakunthala of Congress representing Siddalingapura and C T Rajanna of JD(S) from Chilkunda remained absent on health grounds.
Following this, the total members who participated in the poll process were 44. The numbers for Congress and JD(D) was restricted to 21 and 15, respectively.
Though BJP had all its eight members present in the house including five who had identified with KJP, the JD(S) and BJP combine could get the support of only 21.
Two among them (KJP) supported Congress. Though the winning party couldn’t get the magic number of 24, the highest polled candidate was declared the winner.
Additional commissioner at the office of regional commissioner B Ramu and Chief Executive Officer of ZP P A Gopal were present.