The Hindu : Karnataka / Gulbarga News : Congress retains key posts in Gulbarga City Corporation

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Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Gulbarga

Congress retains key posts in Gulbarga City Corporation

Special Correspondent

Rebel candidates withdraw; BJP, Janata Dal (S) boycott mayoral elections

TIME FOR CELEBRATION: The newly elected Mayor, Chandrika Parameshwari, and the Deputy Mayor, Mohammed Zahed, celebrating their victory in Gulbarga on Tuesday.

GULBARGA: The Congress on Tuesday retained the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor after some initial hiccups.

While the former Deputy Mayor Chandrika Parameshwar was elected Mayor, two-time Mayor, Mohammed Zahed, was elected Deputy Mayor. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular) boycotted the mayoral polls.

Ms. Parameshwar and Mr. Zahed polled 34 votes and the BJP candidates, Shantabai Malli and Chandrasekhar, drew a blank.

The last-minute withdrawal by the rebel candidates Nirmala Guruswamy and Naseer Ahmed, saved the party some embarrassment.

The former Minister Basavaraj Patil Humnabad, appointed by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee as the observer for the polls, and the former Minister Qamar-ul-Islam persuaded Ms. Guruswamy and Mr. Ahmed to withdraw their nominations.

Apart from this, behind-the-scenes manoeuvres by senior leaders of the party helped prevent the Janata Dal (S) from joining hands with the BJP to support the rebel candidates.

According to information available with The Hindu , the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, called a senior Janata Dal (S) leader in Gulbarga and requested him to ensure that the party councillors stayed away from the elections, as any support to the rebel candidates would send the wrong signal.

Although the BJP and the Janata Dal (S) councillors stayed away from the election citing different reasons, it was obvious that they had been out-manoeuvred by the Congress.

While the BJP staged a walkout saying that the outgoing Mayor, Amrutrao Patil, had violated the rules of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act in conducting the elections and postponing the election meeting to enable the Congress to stem the rebellion, the Janata Dal (S) demanded the dissolution of the council as the ruling party had failed on all fronts.

The denial of the party ticket to Ms. Guruswamy, belonging to Woddar community of the Scheduled Castes, and the selection of Ms. Parameshwar, daughter of the former MP and District Congress Committee president, Gundappa Korwar, was the main reason for the rebellion.

The rumour that five councillors, including two independents supporting the Congress, had decided to vote against the official Congress nominees sent waves of panic through the party, forcing senior party leaders to persuade the rebel candidates to withdraw their nominations.

In a house of 62 members, the Congress has 26 votes, including the votes of the Gulbarga MP, Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi, and the MLC Maruti Male.

The BJP, which is the main Opposition party, has 18 members, including the four legislators Chandrasekhar Patil Revoor, Sunil Valyapur, Shashil G. Namoshi, and M.R. Tanga. The Janata Dal (S) has nine members, including the Afzalpur MLA, M.Y. Patil, and the independents have a strength of eight, and the Janta Dal (United) one.

A majority of the independents and the lone Janata Dal (U) member supported the Congress. The legislators and ex-officio members of the corporation with voting powers, Dr. Tanga of BJP, Mr. Patil of Janata Dal (S), and Mr. Male of Congress, did not attend the meeting.

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