The Hindu 03.09.2013
Contest for Mayor’s post hots up
With just a day left for the election to the post of
Mayor and Deputy Mayor, the contest has intensified. The Mayor’s post
has been reserved for the general category, while the Deputy Mayor’s
post is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (woman).
On
Monday, BJP’s city MLAs met to decide on the mayoral candidate. With no
consensus, the party leadership has scheduled a meeting with its 113
councillors on Tuesday.
There is no ambiguity with
regard to the Deputy Mayor’s post, as there is only one lady councillor —
Indira from Byatarayanapura — belonging to Scheduled Tribes category in
the BBMP council.
The frontrunners for the Mayor’s
post are Basavanagudi councillor B.S. Sathyanarayana, Pattabhiramanagar
councillor C.K. Ramamurthy, J.P. Park councillor B.R. Nanjundappa, Dr.
Rajkumar ward councillor Gangabyraiah and Vijayanagar councillor H.
Ravindra.
BJP sources said that caste will play an
important role in who will become the next Mayor. Of the five
frontrunners, two belong to the Brahmin community and three hail from
the Vokkaliga community. The decision is a loaded one, as it will have a
bearing on the next Lok Sabha elections.
Sources
said that if a Brahmin councillor is chosen for the post, then one from
the Vokkaliga community will be made Ruling Party Leader and vice-versa.
“The final decision will be announced only after the party has sought
the opinion of councillors,” sources added.
So who
can vote in the Mayoral polls? The total strength of the BBMP council is
270. This includes, 198 councillors — 113 from BJP, 64 from Congress,
15 from Janata Dal (S) and six independents, 28 city MLAs, eight MLCs,
12 Rajya Sabha MPs, four Lok Sabha MPs and 20 nominated members.
However, the nominated members have no voting powers. As it is, there
are no nominated members in the BBMP council at present. After the new
Congress government came to power in the State, the 20 members were
asked to resign from the council membership.
