Congress councillor from D.J. Halli Sampath Raj was elected unopposed as the city Mayor after the BJP leaders staged a walkout during the Mayoral elections held on Thursday. Rajagopalanagar councillor from the Janata Dal (Secular) Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy was elected unopposed as the Deputy Mayor.
Mr. Raj secured 139 out of 266 votes, as only leaders from Congress and JD(S) voted. The BJP staged a walkout claiming that the Congress had fielded bogus voters who did not have voting rights in Bengaluru city.
Mr. Sampath Raj defeated BJP’s councillor from Kadugodi ward S. Muniswamy. While Mr. Sampath Raj filed three nominations, Mr. Muniswamy filed four nominations.
Two candidates filed nominations for the post of Deputy Mayor - Rajagopalanagar councillor from JD(S) Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy, and BJP councillor from J.P. Park ward Mamatha Vasudev filed four nominations. Ms. Narasimhamurthy filed two nominations, while Ms. Vasudev filed four nominations.
BJP claim of 'mobile' voters
As per the Karnataka Municipal Council (KMC) Act 1976, MLAs, MPs and MLCs representing Bengaluru have the power to vote on Mayoral poll. The BJP's bone of contention is that two MPs and five MLCs who voted for the Mayoral election held on Thursday had claimed to have voting rights in Bengaluru while claiming TA/DA allowance for locations away from the city.
"If these seven voters were not included, the BJP would have required only four voters to reach simple majority, which it could have got with support from Independents," said Padmanabha Reddy, leader of Opposition in council.
