Bengaluru: BJP Defeats Congress In Municipal Elections, M Gowtham Kumar To Be City’s 53rd Mayor

Karnataka's ruling BJP won the Bengaluru mayoral election, defeating Congress with the support of Independents, an official said on Tuesday (1 October).

"BJP Corporator M Goutham Kumar got elected as the 53rd Mayor of Bengaluru, defeating Congress rival R S Sathyanarayana by 14 votes in the mayoral election held at our main corporation office," Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) official L Suresh told IANS here.

Kumar, a two-time corporator from Jogupalya in the city's eastern suburbs, polled 126 votes as against 112 by Dattatreya Temple councillor Sathyanarayana.

The new Mayor originally hails from Rajasthan and belongs to the Jain community.

BJP councillor C R Ramamohan Raju of Bommanahalli was elected Deputy Mayor, defeating Shakti Ganapathi Nagar councillor Ganagamma Rajanna by 13 votes.

Raju secured 129 votes and Rajanna 116 votes.

BJP wrested the Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts from the Congress and Janata Dal-S (JDS) after a 4-year hiatus when the council's 5-year term began in 2015.

In the 198-ward city civic corporation, though the BJP has 101 corporators, the Congress (76) and JD-S (14) shared the posts during the last 4 years with the support of Independents and others.

"The BJP got the support of Independents and others to defeat the Congress, as the JD-S did not extend its support to the former," another official said.

As the city's assembly legislators and parliamentary members are part of the 257-member electoral college with voting rights, they also participated in the mayoral poll on party lines.

Of the 257 members, including Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs, MLAs and MLCs from the city, 249 were present for the mayoral election.

The disqualification of the four Congress and one JD-S legislator on 25-28 July for resigning and allegedly defying their party's whip, cost both the opposition parties dearly in the absence of their votes.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)