The Marathi group maintained its hegemony in the Belagavi City Corporation (BCC) by grabbing both posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the elections held on Saturday.
Kiran Krishnarao Sayanak (Ward No.7) and Meena Rayman Vaaz (Ward No.34) won the contest with a comfortable margin of five votes and were elected as mayor and deputy mayor. The elections held for the 17th term of the council was presided over by Regional Commissioner (In-charge) M. Manjunatha Naik.
Mr. Sayanak polled 32 votes and defeated Ramesh Sontakki of Kannada-Urdu group. In the election for the post of deputy mayor, Ms. Vaaz also secured 32 votes while her rival Sarala Shivanand Herekar (Ward No.41) got 27 votes.
The post of mayor and deputy mayor were reserved for General and General (Woman), respectively.
Of the four MLAs and two MPs who enjoy voting rights, Congress MLA Feroz N. Sait and MES leader Sambhaji L. Patil voted.
District in-charge Minister Satish Jarkiholi, Sanjay B. Patil, MLA (BJP) the two Lok Sabha members Suresh C. Angadi (Belagavi-BJP) and Prakash B. Hukkeri (Chikodi-Congress) were conspicuous by their absence.
By finalising Mr. Sayanak’s candidature for the Mayor’s post, only a couple of hours before commencement of the election process, the Marathi group kept its members united. Till the previous night, at least two other members from the group were in contention for the post.
Deepak Jamkhandi, floor leader of the Opposition (Kannada-Urdu group), who had been eyeing the Mayor’s but decided not to contest, said, “The contest was not between the Kannada or Marathi groups, but between the second-line leaders and senior leaders consisting of legislators and MPs.”
He said the senior leaders were aware of the differences within the Marathi group but kept off from grabbing the opportunity to ensure victory for the Kannada-Urdu group members. They could have at least managed to ensure the post of deputy mayor for the group. But, except for Mr. Sait and Mr. Sambhaji, no other MLA or MP exercise their voting rights, he told reporters soon after the results were declared.
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