BENGALURU: BJP corporator from Jogupalya, M. Gautam Kumar, handpicked by the BJP high command, became the 53rd Mayor of Bengaluru, while Bommanahalli corporator C.R. Rammohan Raju was elected his deputy. Both the mayor and deputy mayor secured 129 votes, while the Congress-JD(S) coalition’s mayoral candidate R.S. Sathyanarayana got 112 votes and the deputy mayor candidate Ms Gangamma 116 votes.
Of the 257 members eligible to vote, only 249 were present bringing down the magic number to 125. Among the prominent absentees were Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, former Union minister Jairam Ramesh and Bengaluru Rural MP D.K. Suresh.
Till the last minute, BJP leaders Gautam and Padmanabha Reddy lobbied heavily for the post.
As soon Regional Commissioner Harsha Gupta started the voting process at 11.30 am, Congress leader P.R. Ramesh intervened. He sought to know under what sections the elections were being held, other Congress leaders wanted clarifications on the Standing Committee elections too.
The voting process was stalled for a few minutes with JD(S) leaders, like Sharavana, Ramesh Raju and others, demanding that the election be postponed. They alleged that the officials are behaving like the puppets of BJP. Mr Gupta said that everything has been clarified and began the voting process.
Though the BJP enjoyed a simple majority in the BBMP Council for the last four years, it was kept away from power by the Congress-JD(S) coalition, which ran the council with the support of seven independent corporators. The BJP has grabbed the posts with just a year left for the BBMP Council elections.
