The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has swept the elections to the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat and all the five taluk panchayats in the district.
The BJP retained power in Sullia and Puttur taluk panchayats and wrested Mangalore and Bantwal Taluk Panchayats from the Congress and Belthangady Taluk Panchayat from the Janata Dal (Secular).
In the 35-member zilla panchayat, the BJP has won 24 seats (it had bagged 15 in the 2005 poll) and the Congress 11 seats (15 seats earlier). The Janata Dal (Secular) which contested 26 seats lost in all of them. It had won five seats in last election.
Taluk panchayats
The Janata Dal (Secular), which contested 94 taluk panchayat seats in this election, was able to win only a seat that is in Puttur Taluk Panchayat.
Of the 24 seats in Belthangady Taluk Panchayat, the party had won 12 in the last election. The BJP, which wrested the panchayat from it, won 19 seats in this election.
A candidate from Kudubi tribal community has been elected to the zilla panchayat in the district for the first time. Janardhana Gouda from Edapadavu constituency, Mangalore taluk, has been elected. He holds B.Com. degree. Mr. Gouda defeated Krishna Amin of the Congress by 305 votes. The Congress has lost this stronghold to the BJP.
Mr. Gouda told The Hindu that earlier only one candidate from his community had been able to make it to a taluk panchayat in Udupi. He said that earlier he (Mr. Gouda) had been elected a member of Muchur Gram Panchayat in Mangalore taluk thrice with once as its president.
In the Golthamajalu zilla panchayat constituency, the Congress candidate Prakash Shetty who had contested as a rebel in 2005, won as party's official candidate this time. The then president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee M. Mallikarjun Kharge had issued Mr. Shetty a show-cause notice for “anti-party activities” after he contested as a rebel. According to M.G. Hegde, a spokesperson of district unit of the Congress, the issue had been settled after Mr. Shetty apologised for contesting as a rebel.
Malli loses
Interestingly, Mr. Shetty defeated G. Sadananda Malli of the BJP by a margin of 447 votes. Mr. Malli was formerly chairman of the standing committee on agriculture in the panchayat council. In the 2005 election, Mr. Malli had been elected to the council from the Congress.
He switched over to the BJP in this election and lost.
His son Rakesh Malli from the Congress is Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) president.
Victors and the vanquished
The former president of the zilla panchayat Mamatha Gatti from the Congress who contested from Thumbe constituency has won. Rajashree Hegde of the Janata Dal (Secular), who was vice-president of the zilla panchayat, has lost to the BJP in Kaniyoor constituency in Belthangady taluk.
His loss is being seen as a major gain for the BJP.
Venkat Dambekodi of the BJP, who was former president of the zilla panchayat, lost it to the Congress in Guthigar constituency in Sullia taluk.
Yashwanti Alva from the Congress in Mangalore taluk has made it to the zilla panchayat for the third time.
On the other hand, Asha Thimmappa Gowda who contested on a BJP ticket from Sullia taluk has won for the second time.
