Congress candidate Gangambike Mallikarjun was elected mayor of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike on Friday while Janata Dal (Secular) candidate Ramila Umashankar was elected deputy mayor, The News Minute reported. This is the first time women will occupy both the posts.
The elections were held amid heated arguments, and a scuffle between council members of the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Janata Dal (Secular).
Gangambike, a corporator from Jayanagar ward number 153, secured 130 votes. The BBMP Council has 198 corporators representing each ward in the city but parliamentarians and state legislators residing in Bengaluru can also vote. Out of the 259 eligible voters, only 253 signed up to vote.
“There was no question of threat by the BJP because we always had the numbers,” said former Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy. “Three Congress leaders didn’t make it in time. But we still won. It is a victory for Congress, not Ramalinga Reddy.”
The Congress shifted five independent corporators to a resort in Bengaluru on Thursday after two independent corporators reportedly switched loyalties to the BJP.
Following the Assembly election in mid-May, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s BS Yeddyurappa was initially sworn in as the chief minister but resigned two days later as his party, despite being the largest, did not have the numbers to prove its majority. The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) forged a post-poll alliance to form the government and Janata Dal (Secular) state chief HD Kumaraswamy was sworn in as the chief minister on May 23.
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