Amidst high drama, ZP President adjourns election to Standing Committees

Mysuru:  The Zilla Panchayat (ZP) meeting convened today to elect heads and members of various Standing Committees was adjourned amidst high drama.

Soon as the meeting began at 11 am, ZP President Nayeema Sulthana, who chaired the meeting, was surprised to see only few members, following which she adjourned the meeting to 12 noon, citing lack of quorum.

As the ZP reassembled at 12 noon, a few members were present and Nayeema Sulthana adjourned the meeting once again for half an hour. After the ZP re-convened at 12.45 pm, Nayeema adjourned the meeting, seeking a few days time to announce the date of the next meeting.

But as Mangala Somashekar of BJP insisted on the announcement of the date, Nayeema Sultana said that the meeting would be convened in 10 days time and with the ZP President’s announcement, the members left the hall, it is learnt.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that many of JD(S) and Congress members abstained from today’s meeting in order to buy time for reaching an understanding between the two parties on sharing of posts in the ZP.

Congress ZP Members meet

Ahead of the election to the Standing Committees this morning, Congress ZP Members held a meeting at Jaladarshini Guest House to chalk out strategies for grabbing a majority of the posts, with the Congress having 23 members in the 48-Member body.

After the meeting, MP R. Dhruvanarayan, who addressed the press persons, said that Congress had convened an emergency meeting to discuss the strategy to be adopted for the election to ZP posts.

Stating that Tourism Minister S.R. Mahesh had called him over phone to discuss sharing of power in the Mysuru ZP too on the lines of JD(S)-Congress coalition government in the State, the MP said that the issue of sharing ZP posts must be discussed between former CM Siddharamaiah, Ministers G.T. Devegowda and S.R. Mahesh. He said that there was much pressure on local Congress leadership as Congress ZP Members were vying with each other on heading various ZP Standing Committees.