April 5: Sarakki ward corporator S.K. Nataraj has emerged as a strong contender for the mayor’s post after the BJP won the BBMP election with a clear majority on Monday.

The BJP is likely to announce the matrix for the mayor’s post taking all the corporations as a unit, said law and parliamentary affairs minister S. Suresh Kumar. The matrix, stipulating that the mayor will be from the general category and the post of deputy mayor will be reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate, was fixed in 2008-09 and will be considered as the base year, he said.

This favours Mr Nataraj, a Vokkaliga. With 48 Vokkaligas winning the election, Mr Nataraj is being seen as the ideal choice, the sources said. With the BJP emerging as the clear winner, the party is likely to issue a notification shortly to accommodate Mr Nataraj. The post of deputy mayor will be reserved for a Scheduled Caste (SC) candidate, the sources said. A notification to this effect has already been prepared and will be issued shortly, the sources said. Though a recent notification issued on February 15, 2010, stipulates that the mayor’s post has been reserved for BCA and deputy mayor for general category candidates, this will now come into effect only in 2012-13, the sources said. For the year 2011-12, the mayor’s post has been reserved for SCs and the deputy mayor for BC(A). However, there are no bigwigs for the post of deputy mayor. A loyal worker who works for bettering the city will be chosen as the deputy mayor from the SC community, they added.