Two mayors who had thrown their hats into the ring in the 2018 Assembly elections have lost.
Both former mayor G. Padmavathi and Mayor R. Sampath Raj were contesting on Congress tickets and lost to incumbent MLAs of the BJP. They hoped that their ‘good work as city mayor’ would be recognised by their constituents.
Mr. Sampath Raj lost to C.V. Raman Nagar MLA S. Raghu by 12,227 votes.
He told The Hindu that when the votes were being tallied, the trends were initially going back and forth between him and Mr. Raghu. However, after the 11th round of counting, it became apparent that Mr. Raghu would win.
“I accept the people’s mandate. I am happy that I was able to increase the vote share of the Congress this time around,” he said and added that in the 2013 Assembly polls, the Congress was able to secure around 41,000 votes from C.V. Raman Nagar. This election, the party bagged a total of 46,660 votes.
The Janata Dal (S) candidate P. Ramesh, who secured 20,470 votes, was initially with the Congress. “When he was denied a ticket, he contested with the JD(S) ticket. This was the reason for the split in Congress votes. Otherwise, we would have won easily in the constituency,” Mr. Sampath Raj said.
Ms. Padmavathi lost to Rajajinagar MLA S. Suresh Kumar by 9,453 votes.
This is the second time that she has lost to Mr. Suresh Kumar. In the 2013 Assembly polls, Mr. Suresh Kumar had won with a margin of 14,767 votes. This time around, the margin has come down to 9,453 votes.
Ms. Padmavathi was not available for comment.
