Mumtaz Begum elected Mayor

Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, ,

Bangalore,  KARNATAKA :

Lakshminarayana elected Deputy Mayor; BJP candidates lose by huge margins

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  • Mumtaz Begum is the first Muslim Mayor
  • JD(S) and JD(U) abstain from voting
  • Ms. Begum defeated Nagaratna Nagaraj by 37 votes
  • Lakshminarayana polled 58 votes as against 22 by L. Srinivas
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VICTORIOUS: Out-going Mayor Narayanaswamy (centre) with newly-elected Mayor Mumtaz Begum (right) and Deputy Mayor M. Lakshminarayana in Bangalore on Tuesday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
VICTORIOUS: Out-going Mayor Narayanaswamy (centre) with newly-elected Mayor Mumtaz Begum (right) and Deputy Mayor M. Lakshminarayana in Bangalore on Tuesday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Bangalore :

With the Congress deciding on the candidate for the post of Mayor two days in advance, Mumtaz Begum was elected 43rd Mayor of Bangalore on Tuesday. She is the first Muslim Mayor and the fourth woman Mayor.

M. Lakshminarayana, who represents Gali Anjaneyaswamy Temple ward in Binnypet Assembly constituency, was elected 44th Deputy Mayor. His candidature was finalised on Tuesday, as there was a keen contest between Mr. Lakshminarayana and Audugodi corporator K.B. Mohan for the post.

Chaos prevailed in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Council even before the elections were held. The Congress nominees, who were certain of donning the coveted mantles, were busy posing for photographs even before the official announcement.

Though the elections were held in the presence of the entire Opposition — the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Bharatiya Janata Party — the Janata Dal (Secular) members abstained from voting like in the past. As soon as the meeting began, the Opposition members objected to the elections being conducted despite some organisations approaching the court seeking a change in the reservation category.

“How can you hold the elections when the matter is in the court? What if the court orders a change in the category?” the members led by Kachakaranahalli corporator Padmanabha Reddy asked.

This apart, the election proceedings were delayed by over 40 minutes as the Opposition members alleged that the ruling Congress had violated the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act by not notifying the election of members to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Library Authority and other organisations along with the Mayoral elections. The members calmed down after the Mayor justified that the court had not stayed the elections.

The BJP fielded the Sampangiramnagar corporator Nagaratna Nagaraj and the Padmanabhanagar corporator L. Srinivas, against the Congress nominees for both the posts. But they were defeated by huge margins. Ms. Begum defeated her rival by a margin of 37 votes. She bagged 58 votes while Ms. Nagaratna secured 21. Mr. Lakshminarayana polled 58 votes as against 22 by Mr. Srinivas.

Ms. Begum (46) a graduate, representing Shivajinagar in north Bangalore is a third-time corporator. She was elected 25th Deputy Mayor in 1984 when she was in the erstwhile Janata Party. She joined the Congress in 1988 and was elected corporator in 1990 for the second time. In the present BMP Council, she has headed the Standing Committee on Appeals in 2001 and was also member of the Standing Committee on Education and Social Justice in 2003. She represented the BMP in the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) from 1992 to 1995. She has worked as the general secretary of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, Mahila Wing (1991-1995), president of Shivajinagar Block Congress Committee (1993-1997), general secretary of Bangalore City District Congress Committee (1995-1997), general secretary of KPCC (1997-2002) and executive committee member, KPCC (2002-2005).

Mr. Lakshminarayana (46) belongs to the Vokkaliga community. He represents the Gali Anjenayaswamy Temple ward for the second consecutive time. He is the 44th Deputy Mayor as there were two Deputy Mayors in 1965. After D.Thamayya’s death, C. Bhaskaran was elected Deputy Mayor then.

Both the candidates filed their nomination papers earlier in the day and the elections were conducted from 11.40 a.m. onwards. Unlike in the past, the Mayoral elections went on without the usual “drama” (convincing members to withdraw in the last minute, as there were no rebels) in the BMP Council hall.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Online edition / Home> Karnataka / Wednesday – November 30th, 2015