Once the result of the 16th Lok Sabha election is out on May 16, political strategists in the district will have their hands full, finalising the candidates for the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat’s president and vice president posts.
Though the change in the reservation roster for the president’s post – from woman from backward class A category to woman general category – has given more options for the ruling BJP, indications are that choosing the candidate may not be quite easy. The reason is that the Zilla Panchayat’s tenure will come to an end as the next president’s 20 month term ends. Since it would be poll time for the district level Panchayat Raj body then, the ruling party wanted to ensure that it has a leader who will deliver the goods for the people so that the BJP returned to power in the polls, said District Unit president Prathap Simha Nayak.
The vice president’s post remains open for any member as it is reserved for general category. The term of the sitting president K. Koragappa Naik and vice president Ritesh Shetty ends on June 7. In the 35-member council, the BJP has 24 members, including 13 women and 11 men. The Congress has 11 members.
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Now the BJP can select any of the 13 women members.
Of them, Asha Thimmappa Gowda, the current president of the standing committee on education and health and member from Bellare constituency, and K. Meenakshi Manjunatha, member from Panaje, have been elected to the council for the second time. Sources in the BJP said no frontrunners had emerged for the post of the president yet.
For the post of the vice president, Janardhana Gouda, former president of standing committee for social justice and member from Edapadavu, and Santosh Kumar Rai, member from Kurnadu, are the frontrunners.
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For the Congress, it could only be a formality of naming candidates to contest for the two posts as its strength is limited in the ZP Council.