3-time BJP councillor Sudheer Shetty Kannur elected Mayor of Mangaluru

First-time councillor Sunitha elected unopposed as Deputy Mayor

Deputy Mayor Sunita and newly-elected Mayor of Mangaluru Sudhir Shetty Kannur being greeted by officials after the election on September 8, 2023. | Photo Credit: H S MANJUNATH

Three-time BJP councillor Sudheer Shetty Kannur was elected the new Mayor of Mangaluru in the election conducted on September 8. First-time councillor Sunitha (BJP) was elected unopposed as the new Deputy Mayor.

Sudheer Shetty Kannur, new Mayor of Mangaluru. | Photo Credit: MANJUNATH HS

Mr. Kannur defeated Congress candidate Naveen R. D’Souza, who was the Leader of Opposition, by a margin of 33 votes. Mr. Kannur secured 47 votes and Mr. D’Souza got 14 votes.

In the 60-member elected council, the BJP has 44 seats, followed by the Congress with 14 seats and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) with two seats.

Two BJP MLAs – D. Vedavyasa Kamath from Mangaluru City South and Y. Bharat Shetty from Mangaluru City North – and Dakshina Kannada Member of Parliament Nalin Kumar Kateel (BJP) and Congress MLC Manjunath Bhandary enjoy voting rights for the mayoral election as they are voters in the jurisdiction of Mangaluru City Corporation.

In addition to the 44 votes of BJP councillors, Mr. Kannur secured three votes of two MLAs and an MP.

Mr. Bhandary did not turn up for the election. Hence, the Congress candidate got 14 votes of the party’s councillors. The two councillors of the SDPI remained neutral.

Mr. Kannur was elected on November 12, 2019 from Kodialbail ward (No. 30 – Mangaluru City South Assembly constituency). Earlier, he had been elected to the council twice consecutively from Kannur ward (No. 52), also in Mangaluru City South. He is general secretary of the Dakshina Kannada district unit of the BJP. He was an active RSS worker.

Sunita, new Deputy Mayor of Mangaluru. | Photo Credit: MANJUNATH HS

Sunitha who represents Panambur-Bengre ward (No. 11) is the lone woman councillor belonging to Scheduled Caste in the elected council. As there was no other contestant, she was elected unopposed as the Deputy Mayor. Before getting elected to the council, she had worked as ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist).

The last mayoral election was held on September 9, 2022.

The one-year term of incumbent Mayor Jayananda Anchan and Deputy Mayor Poornima ended on September 8. For the 23rd term, the post of Mayor was reserved for the general category while Deputy Mayor was reserved for Backward Class A (woman).

The election scheduled on September 8 was to elect the fourth Mayor and Deputy Mayor during the current five-year term of the council. The mayoral election, for the 24th term, was conducted by the Regional Commissioner of Mysuru Prakash.

The government had reserved the office of the Mayor for general category while the office of Deputy Mayor was reserved for Scheduled Caste (woman).