Chandrashekar elected Mayor, Shankar is his Deputy

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, NOV. 24. After a week of hectic lobbying for the Mayoral polls, consensus candidates of the Congress, Mr. K.Chandrashekar and Mr. R.Shankar were on Saturday unanimously elected 39th Mayor and 40th Deputy Mayor of Bangalore respectively.

For the first time in the history of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), the Mayoral elections were held in the absence of the Opposition parties. The BJP, the JD(S) and the JD(U) boycotted the polls protesting against the alleged malpractice in the polls. The members staged a walk-out from the Council even before the election process began.

Mr. Chandrashekar and Mr. Shankar are the youngest of all the mayors and deputy mayors. The Mayor and his Deputy are 34.

Elected from Hanumanthnagar for the third time in a row, Mr. Chandrashekar won by a record margin of over 10,000 votes.

Mr. Shankar, representing Lingarajpuram, is a novice to politics. He is the 40th Deputy Mayor as there were two Deputy Mayors in 1965. After D.Thamayya's death, Mr. C.Bhaskaran was elected Deputy Mayor then.

Both the candidates filed their nomination papers earlier in the day and elections were conducted in the afternoon after the new 100-member Council was administered the oath of office by Bangalore Divisional Commissioner and Election Officer, Mr. I.Devandran.

Unlike in the past, the Mayoral polls went on without any ``drama'' in the Congress circles as the party reached consensus on Friday. In fact, party leaders announced the names of consensus candidates on Friday night.

The nomination of Mr. Chandrashekar was proposed by four Congress corporators, Mr. Udayshankar, Mr. M.Srinivas, Mr. S.Rajanna, and Mr. P.R.Ramesh, and was seconded by four others. The nomination of Mr. Shankar was proposed by Mr. N.Nagaraj, Mr. Srinivas and Mr. Rajanna and was seconded by three others.

Later, the Election Officer declared that the candidates were elected unopposed as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the City.

Oppn. boycott

Earlier, even as the Election Officer announced that the nominations received for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor would be scrutinised, the BJP and the JD(U) members shouted slogans against the Congress alleging that the party indulged in malpractices in the BMP polls.

Mr. Vasudeva Murthy, former Deputy Mayor and JD(U) leader, and Mr. B.S.Satyanarayana, BJP leader, accused the Congress of indulging in large-scale rigging in the BMP polls.

They alleged that the Mayoral polls were not being conducted according to the procedures. They argued that the nominations for the Mayoral polls should be filed only after the swearing-in ceremony of the elected body.

Mr. B.R.Nanjundappa and Mr. Syed Jameel Ahmed of the JD(S) demanded that the Mayoral polls be cancelled on the grounds that they were not being held as per rules. However, the Election Officer said the polls were being held as per the provisions of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act.

``Under Rule 71 of the Act, nominations to the polls of the two posts should be invited not less than two hours before the first meeting of the elected body. It does not matter whether the nominations are invited before the swearing-in ceremony or after. Therefore, the polls are being conducted according to rules,'' he said.

At this point, the BJP, the JD(S) and the JD(U) members walked out of the Council.

Elections to the posts of 56 office-bearers and chairpersons of eight standing committees have been put off to November 26 as no nominations were received on Saturday.

With four independents, Mr. M.Shivraj, Ms. D.Shaila, Mr. N.Nagaraj and Ms. N.Lakshmi joining the JD(S), the party is all set to become the main Opposition in the BMP Council. The strength of the JD(S) has increased from 13 to 17 now.

The letters of agreement submitted by the independents to the JD(S) City President, Mr. Ratan Singh, were presented to the BMP Commissioner, Mr. Ashok M.Dalwai, by the JD(S) leaders on Saturday.

CM congratulates Mayor

The Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, congratulated Mr. Chandrashekhar and Mr. Shankar on their unanimous election as Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively of Bangalore.

``The Mayor and his Deputy have an onerous responsibility of directing Bangalore towards a better future. I am confident that their experience and expertise will help them to do so,'' the Chief Minister said in his message.

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