N.M. Rajeshwari of the Janata Dal(Secular) was elected Mayor of Mysore in the elections held here on Thursday while V. Shylendra, also of the JD(S), was elected Deputy Mayor.
Ms. Rajeshwari said she would accord priority to finding a solution to the drinking water problem and concentrate on shoring up the civic administration with focus on underground drainage works, roads and so on.
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The JD(S) and BJP worked out a power-sharing arrangement to muster a majority and thwart the Congress’s bid to assume power. The Mayor’s post was reserved for woman (general) and the Deputy Mayor’s post was reserved for Scheduled Caste. As per the arrangement, the JD(S) retained the two plum posts and the BJP will keep the posts of chairpersons to the four standing committees
There was a fractured verdict in elections held in March this year. The Congress has 22 seats in the 65-member council, while the JD(S) has 20 seats and the BJP has 12 seats. There are seven Independents, two councillors from the Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and one each from the BSR Congress and the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP).
Ms. Rajeshwari secured 39 votes. This included votes of the 20 JD(S) councillors, 12 BJP councillors, five legislators — three from the JD(S) and two from the BJP who have voting rights — apart from the support of the KJP councillor and an Independent. She defeated Manjula Manasa of the Congress who secured 29 votes. They included the votes of 22 Congress councillors, three Congress MLAs, two Independents, the BSR Congress councillor and one SDPI a councillor.
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Ms. Rajeshwari’s tenure as Mayor will come to a close on September 4, 2014.
Mr. Shylendra secured 39 votes and defeated Bhagyavathi of the Congress who polled 32 votes, while S. Swamy of the SDPI secured two votes.
This was the first meeting of the council after the elections were held. The Mayoral polls were delayed as the roster of reservation was announced only in the last week of August.
The elections were devoid of any high drama. The Congress seemed resigned to its fate as the maths was not in its favour even if it had managed to garner the support of the seven Independents.
Confusion
As the councillors voted by raising their hands, there was some confusion at the time of counting. The former Mayor Srikantiah (Independent) objected to his name being included in the list of people who voted for Ms. Manasa. He complained that he had, in fact, abstained from voting. There was a fresh count and the names of the councillors who voted in favour of the Congress was read out and their signatures taken. Five councillors abstained from voting.
Members of the four standing committees of the MCC were also elected.
Regional Commissioner M.V. Jayanti was the Returning Officer and MCC Commissioner M.R. Ravi was present.