Amid confusion, adjournment of the election process and a walkout by Opposition councillors, elections to the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Hubli-Dharwad were held here on Saturday.
The election process, which began with a protest by Opposition councillors against mediapersons not being allowed to cover the event, concluded with a walkout by the Opposition councillors. Returning Officer and Regional Commissioner Gangaram Baderia announced that the BJP councillor representing ward number 42, Pandurang Venkanagouda Patil, had been elected the 34th Mayor of Hubli-Dharwad. The BJP's Bharati B. Patil, representing ward number 19 was elected Deputy Mayor. District in-charge Minister Jagadish Shettar, MP Pralhad Joshi, MLAs Chandrakanth Bellad, Virabhadrappa Halaharavi, and Seema Masuti, and MLC Mohan Limbikai were witness to the process. Even before the election process began, Congress councillors took exception to the move not to allow mediapersons into the council hall. After discussion with the Regional Commissioner, the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation Commissioner Trilok Chandra allowed mediapersons to enter.
Confusion
Once the process began, Mr. Baderia announced that of the total number of voters — comprising 66 councillors and 10 elected representatives (MP, MLAs and MLCs) — nine were absent. After JD(S) councillor Rajanna Koravi withdrew his nomination papers for the post of Mayor, Mr. Baderia asked the councillors to vote by raising their hands, and asked the council staff to take the signatures of those who had raised their hands in support of Congress candidate Prakash Baburao Ghatge. However, confusion prevailed after councillors of the BJP also signed the document, opposing Mr. Ghatge's name, and the signatures of two Congress councillors were not collected.
Amidst the disorder, Mr. Baderia alleged that the media was responsible for the confusion.
Even as presspersons got up to leave, taking exception to Mr. Baderia's statement, the Returning Officer announced that the election meeting had been adjourned till 3 p.m.
However, after the mediapersons walked out of the council hall, the Returning Officer continued the election meeting when Mr. Joshi pointed out that there was no need for adjournment.
According to official sources, while Dr. Patil (a former medical practitioner) got 41 votes, his opponent from the Congress Mr. Ghatge (ward number 9) got 21 votes.
Interestingly, 31 councillors belong to the Opposition parties (Congress 22 and JD-S 9) in the HDMC council, and official sources clarified that some of them had “remained neutral” during the voting.
Walkout
Even as the Mayor was elected, the Opposition parties kept raising the issue of the absence of mediapersons and raising slogans against the highhandedness of the Returning Officer, and they walked out of the council hall without voting for Deputy Mayor.
Official sources said Ms. Bharati Patil of the BJP got 41 votes while “zero votes” were cast in support of her opponent Puja P. Hiremath (ward number 39). Vijayalaxmi Lutimath of the JD(S), who had earlier filed her nomination papers for the post of Deputy Mayor, withdrew them. The HDMC premises witnessed both celebration and protests on Saturday as the Opposition parties walked out raising slogans against the ruling party and the Returning Officer, while the supporters of Dr. Patil and Ms. Bharati Patil burst crackers to celebrate.
