A stand-off between Congress and JD(S), coalition partners at the State-level, over sharing posts of members and chairpersons of standing committees of the zilla panchayat posed hurdles to the smooth conduct of elections to the posts here on Monday.
The elections scheduled for Monday could not begin till late in the evening owing to differences between the ruling JD(S), which is in alliance with the BJP, and Opposition Congress as a consensus over sharing the posts eluded the parties.
In the outgoing standing committees, finance and accounts was headed by zilla panchayat president while general standing committee was headed by vice-president as per the convention.
The remaining three were shared by the three parties — JD(S) headed standing committee on social justice, BJP member led standing committee on industries and agriculture, and Congress had education and health.
The Congress’s demand for the post of chairperson of standing committee on social justice ahead of the elections on Monday was turned down by the JD(S).
The JD(S) members argued that the strength of the Congress has come down from the time the last elections were held to the panels and asked the party to settle for the same arrangement. Out the 71 members, including legislators and MP with voting rights, the strength of the Congress had come down from 39 to 33, while the strength of JD(S)-BJP stood at 38.
After hours of fruitless confabulations between the three parties, an election became inevitable.
