The Hindu 12.08.2013
Term of 48th Mayor will be cut short
Staff Reporter
Those aspiring for the post are a disgruntled lot
The decks may have been cleared for the election of the
city’s 47th Mayor, but the four-month delay in holding the elections
will cut short the term of the 48th Mayor in this council. The term of
the present council will come to an end on April 25, 2015, and the 48th
Mayor and 49th Deputy Mayor will hold those posts only for nine months.
While
the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act 1976 sets the term of the
Mayor and Deputy Mayor for one year from the date of election, the Mayor
in the last year of the council’s five-year term will technically have
about nine months to serve due to the delay this year.
The
post of the last Mayor in this council has been reserved for the
General (woman) category and woman councillors, and those aspiring for
that post, are a disgruntled lot because of the short tenure.
According
to sources in the ruling BJP, the contenders for the top post are
Moodalapalya councillor Shantha Kumari, Vijnanapura councillor Geetha
Vivekananda and Domlur councillor Geetha Srinivas Reddy. Ms. Vivekananda
told
The Hindu
it was unfair for the reservation to be changed in the last minute. She
said the 47th Mayor’s post was reserved for General (woman) category.
“However, none of us know why it was changed. It could not be reversed
as the code of conduct for the Assembly elections were announced by
then,” she said. She also said there was no option to extend the term of
the 48th Mayor, as it will mean that the term of the entire council
would also have to be extended.
Meanwhile, hectic
lobbying has begun in the BJP for the Mayor’s post this year. Senior
councillors B.S. Sathyanarayana, C.K. Ramamurthy, B.R. Nanjundappa and
Gangabyraiah have put their hats into the ring already. However, there
is no confusion in who will be the next Deputy Mayor, which is reserved
for the Scheduled Tribes (woman) category, as there is only one
councillor — Indira from Byatarayanapura ward — who belongs to that
category.