No consensus on Mayor candidate

Bengaluru: The finalization of the official candidate for the post of Mayor remained inconclusive even after meeting with a few legislators ahead of mayoral poll on Thursday evening. After reaching a consensus the name will be either announced tomorrow or during the election after consulting senior leaders and union ministers like H.N. Ananthkumar and D.V. Sadananda Gowda. The Mayoral poll will be held at 1 pm on Friday at the BBMP council hall.

For the Mayor’s post JP Park ward corporator B R Nanjundappa, Moodalapalya ward corporator N Shanta Kumari and Vijayanagar ward corporator H. Ravindra were the frontrunners, while Basaveshwaranagar corporator H S Padmaraj is likely to be deputy mayor. Commotion prevailed at the meeting when former MLC V. Somanna intervened and demanded that Shanta Kumari should be the mayor.

Both Mayor and Deputy Mayor’s post were reserved for general category. H Ravindra is senior corporator and represents Vokkaliga community. Earlier he had held the post of chairman of Major Works Committee.

Both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will hold the post only for seven months. Since Venkatesh Murthy stayed put in Mayor’s seat for about 17 months due to the litigation in the court about the reservation and code of conduct for assembly polls, the term of the last mayor got reduced to seven months, said sources.

Although Padmaraj’s name is the favourite, Vignananagar corporator Geeta Vivekananda is also in the race.