Come February 3, it would be five months that residents of Belagavi voted to elect their councillors, or representatives at the ward level. But, the councillors are yet to elect a Mayor and a Deputy Mayor.
Belagavi, the fourth largest city in Karnataka, has gone without a Mayor or Deputy Mayor for 150 days, despite having an elected body. The councillors are yet to take oath as the members even though they have started working informally. They even voted in the recent legislative council polls.
This is because the State Government has not announced the election for the post of Mayor. It is widely expected that the dates for three cities – Kalaburagi, Hubballi-Dharwad and Belagavi – would be announced together. Officials hint at the likelihood of the announcement in the first week of February, a week before the State legislature’s budget session. Though the government has notified reservation categories for Mayor and Deputy Mayors for all the cities, dates of mayoral polls are yet to be announced.
Officials point out that the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act- 1976 that governs the city corporations, provides that the members shall elect a president and vice president in the first meeting. But it does not say when the first meeting shall be held.
One of the reasons for the delay may be the lack of clear majority for the BJP in Kalaburagi, say party sources. In Belagavi, however, the BJP had a cause of celebrate. It won 35 of the 58 seats in the city corporation. The election was historical for several reasons. It was the first time after re-organisation of States that parties nominated their candidates by distributing tickets. Thus, it was the first time that any party claimed to have won a majority of seats.
The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, that had dominated city politics for decades, was pushed to the background, winning only a handful of seats. Congress won 10 seats and would sit in the opposition benches. The remaining councillors claim to be independents.
As per a recent notification, the Mayor would be a woman from the general (unreserved) category, and the Deputy Mayor would be someone from Backward Classes-B (Woman) category.
BJP has eight women candidates from unreserved categories among the newly-elected councillors. “But it will have to tread carefully in selection of the candidates as it has to balance their aspirations against the linguistic divisions among voters. Assertion of the Marathi identity among the Marathas and other castes that speak the language, have always decided the fate of the Belagavi city corporation. Any error would affect the party’s chances in the next Assembly polls,’’ say party insiders.
Of the 35 members, 22 come from the Belagavi south assembly constituency represented by Abhay Patil and 13 from Belagavi north whose MLA is Anil Benake. Mr Patil is likely to choose the Mayor while Mr Benake would have a go at the Deputy Mayor, say BJP sources.
Among the contenders for Mayor are Vani Vilas Joshi, Sarika Patil, Reshma Patil, Deepali Topagi, Madhavi Ragoche, Shobha Somanache, Savita Patil and Priya Satgoudar.
Ms Joshi and Sarika Patil are considered front-runners as they would not fit into any other quota and are considered loyal followers of the local MLAs. Ms. Joshi is a Kannada speaking Brahmin while Sarika Patil belongs to the Maratha community. Ms. Joshi defeated MES nominee Jayasheela Sayanak whose husband Kiran Sayanak was the Mayor for three terms. Sarika Patil is among the BJP leaders who have won successively from ward No 50 despite the change in the category of the ward reservation.
“Some candidates from BC-woman have won from general–woman seats. They would be considered for Deputy Mayor,’’ said another leader. “The party is likely to choose a Maratha for one of the posts, as it wants to assuage the feelings of some Maratha voters who are feeling left out of city politics after the weakening of the MES,’’ said a former Mayor.
