Bharatiya Janata Party corporator M Goutham Kumar was elected the mayor of Bengaluru on Tuesday, PTI reported. Kumar defeated Congress candidate RS Sathyanarayana to win the post in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike council elections.
The BJP leader, who represents the Jogupalya ward, won 129 votes as opposed to 112 votes secured by Sathyanarayana, who represents the Dattatreya Temple ward. Of the 257-member electoral college, 249 were present, including corporators, members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, MLAs and MLCs from the city.
BJP leader and Bommanahalli councillor CR Ramamohan Raju was elected the deputy mayor, according to The Hindu. Raju also won 129 votes against Ganapathi Nagar councillor Gangamma Rajanna, who secured 116 votes.
The mayoral elections were marred by confusion as the BJP did not disclose the names of its candidates till a few hours before the elections. Two councillors from the saffron party – Opposition leader Padmanabha Reddy and Kumar – also filed their nominations earlier in the day.
However, after BJP announced that Kumar was standing for the post of mayor, dissenting voices within the party died down. In 2015, the BJP had emerged as the single largest party in the BBMP council with 101 out of 198 seats. However, it was still unable to get the mayor’s post as it fell short of the required number of votes in the electoral college.
The Congress and Janata Dal (Secular), which continue to have a coalition, were dealt with a major setback after several MLAs of the two parties were disqualified by former Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar. Munirathna, ST Somashekhar, Byrathi Basavaraj, K Gopalaiah and R Roshan Baig were the five city MLAs among them who could not vote.
The HD Kumaraswamy-led Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance failed to win a trust vote in the Karnataka Assembly in July after 17 of their MLAs resigned. Days later, BS Yediyurappa formed a BJP government with the support of 105 MLAs.
Now, follow and debate the day’s most significant stories on Scroll Exchange.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!