Mysuru: The term of present Mayor and Deputy Mayor ends this evening and the city is likely to get its 30th Mayor in another fortnight if the State Government releases Reservation List in the next three days. And Mayoral election means hectic political activity and all three major parties – Congress, JD(S) and BJP – in the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) have already begun parleys to elect a new Mayor and Deputy.
M.J. Ravikumar of the JD(S), the present Mayor and Rathna Lakshman of the BJP, the Deputy Mayor, who were elected on Dec. 7, 2016, will continue till new candidates are elected though they will not have powers to conduct Council meetings.
MCC Commissioner G. Jagadeesha has already sent a file to the Urban Development Department through the Regional Commissioner (RC) urging the Government to initiate the election process by announcing the Reservation List. Once the list is announced, the RC will begin the poll process.
The MCC has a total of 74 voters, including 65 Corporators. Among them, 21 are from Congress, 20 from JD(S) and 13 from BJP. Seven are Independents, one from BSR Congress, one from Karnataka Janata Party and two from SDPI. This apart, there are four MLAs (including CM Siddharamaiah) and one MLC who can vote for Congress, the JD(S) has one MLA and 2 MLCs while the BJP has one MP who can vote.
One more year remains for the MCC for its present term to end and all the previous four years, the JD(S) had aligned with the BJP to bag power. The JD(S) had established supremacy over BJP as it has always bagged the Mayor’s post while the BJP had to be satisfied with the Deputy Mayor’s post. This year, however, the BJP is likely to demand the Mayor’s post.
Congress is trying to bag the Mayor’s post by tweaking the Reservation List in its favour. Sources said that the list will be modified in such a way that a Congress party candidate will emerge as Mayor based on caste equations. The Congress is planning to reserve the top post to SC woman, sources added.
Interestingly, following the example of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike where Congress and JD(S) are alliance partners, a similar arrangement is being worked out in MCC too. Sources said the JD(S) leaders are planning to change the alliance and go with the Congress, to wrest the Mayor’s post once again. The BJP leaders are, however, trying their best to continue the alliance.
Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, Ravikumar said his term has given him satisfaction. “A lot of development activities have been initiated during my term and the 83rd Kannada Sahitya Sammelana was successfully conducted,” he said. Ravikumar is the 29th Mayor of the 154-year-old civic body.
This post was published on December 6, 2017 6:59 pm