Virajpet and Somwarpet Town Panchayat heads elected

T R Sushmita and K B Harshavardhan, both from BJP, were elected as the president and vice-president of Virajpet Town Panchayat on Tuesday.

During the election held at Town Hall, T R Sushmita from ward number four was elected unanimously as she was the only candidate in the fray.

K B Harshavardhan from ward number 13 was elected as the vice president through lottery.

Augustine Benny from Congress-JD(S) coalition and independent candidate V R Rajnikanth had submitted their nominations for the vice president’s post. Augustine Benny had to withdraw his nomination after the scrutiny.

When L M Nandish, the returning officer, asked the members to raise their hand in support of the candidates. Both the candidates got 10 votes each. Therefore, the post of vice-president was selected by picking a lottery.

MP Pratap Simha and MLA K G Bopaiah voted for BJP candidate Harshavardhan.

Speaking on the occasion, newly elected president of the Town Panchayat T R Sushmitha said that she would work for the development of the town. The priority areas will be the supply of drinking water, cleanliness and people-friendly development works.

Sources said that Sushmita will be the president for 12 months and H M Poornima from 17th ward will be the president for the rest of the 18 months.

Somwarpet TP elections

BJP member Nalini Ganesh and Congress member B Sanjiva were elected unanimously as the president and the vice president of Somwarpet Town Panchayat respectively.

The election process began at the Town Panchayat auditorium in the presence of returning officer Govindaraju. As no other nominations were filed apart from Nalini and Sanjiva, both were elected unanimously.

The president’s post is reserved for SC candidate and that of the vice president for BCM (A) candidate.

Even though there were seven members in the Congress-JD(S) coalition, the president’s post went to BJP as the post was reserved. BJP had been in power in the Town Panchayat from the past five terms.

P K Chandru will be the president for 15 months, after Nalini Ganesh. It is said that the 15-month tenure of the vice president too will be shared by the candidate from JD(S).

MLA Appachu Ranjan was present.

BJP, Congress and JD(S) workers carried out victory processions separately in the town and burst firecrackers.