Newly elected Bellary Mayor, deputy quit BJP

In a move that might adversely affect the prospects of BJP in the district, the newly elected Mayor and Deputy Mayor along with 26 members of the Bellary Mahanagara Palike resigned from the party’s primary membership , on Friday.

K Hanumanthappa and Ibrahim Babu were elected Mayor and Deputy Mayor, respectively, in the election held for the fifth term. The members have stated that they would join the new party to be floated by B Sriramulu.

Barring Sanjay and Parvathi Indushekhar, all the 28 members have tendered their resignation. They had informed the Party State president K S Eshwarappa through a letter.

The post of Mayor was reservered for a candidate from Category ‘A’ and Deputy Mayor for General category.

As only Hanumanthappa and Babu had filed nominations for the posts they were declared elected by the Election Officer K Rathnaprabha, who is also the Regional Commissioner of Gulbarga Division.

It is learnt that legislators Sriramulu and G Somashekara Reddy, at a meeting held here, had taken a decision that Hanumanthappa would hold the position only for three months and hand over the reins to Babu.

Govindarajulu will then be elected to the post of Deputy Mayor, it is said. In the 2007 Palike election, BJP had won 30 of the 35 seats. JD(S) had won three seats and BSP had secured two seats.