The elections for the posts of president and vice-president of the Udupi Zilla Panchayat will be held at 11 a.m. at the Zilla Panchayat Hall here on January 4, 2013, stated a press release issued by Mysore Regional Commissioner here on Monday.
The elections to these top posts, originally scheduled to be held on October 4, 2012, were postponed owing to dissidence in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP has 16 members in the 25-member House. The Congress has nine members.
But a rebellion, triggered by the non-inclusion of former Kundapur MLA Halady Srinivas Shetty in the State Cabinet, led to a vertical split among the BJP zilla panchayat members, eight of whom were affiliated to Mr. Shetty. But neither the members of the official nor the rebel factions of the BJP turned up at the zilla panchayat meeting on October 4, in which the president and vice-president were to be elected. Only nine members of the Congress were present. Regional Commissioner M.V. Jayanti, who was overseeing the election, postponed the meeting to October 12, citing lack of quorum.
Although both the official and rebel BJP factions patched up by October 12, the Congress took the matter to the High Court challenging the decision of Ms. Jayanti to postpone the meeting. Hence, no meeting was held on October 12 as the matter reached the High Court. The Karnataka High Court delivered its judgment on the case on November 15, 2012, which both the Congress and the BJP interpreted it as a win.
