TP Elections: Gowri Poojary Wins in Udupi, Lalitha Naik in Bantwal

Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi

Udupi, Oct 10: Gowri U Poojary and Rama Kulal of BJP were elected president and vice-president of Udupi taluk panchayat. The elections were held here on Wednesday October 10.

The total strength of the panchayat is 41, of which 18 are from Congress, 23 from BJP and one independent.

Gowri won against Sunitha Shetty and Rama Kulal against Umesh Naik. Gowri, vice-president of Barkur gram panchayat, is a supporter of former MLA Haladi Srinivas Shetty.

Rama Kulal is a member of Perdoor gram panchayat.

Kundapur assistant commissioner Sadashiva Prabhu was election officer.

Raghupathi Bhat, Lalaji R Mendon, Upendra Nayak, Uday Kumar Shetty and others were present.

Luck Favours BJP in Bantwal

Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal

Bantwal, Oct 10: Lalitha Shivappa Naik of BJP was elected president of Bantwal taluk panchayat and after some confusion, Anand A Shamboor of the same party was elected the vice-president, during the elections held here on Wednesday October 10.

Dr Venkatesh, Mangalore Assistant commissioner was the election officer.  Vishwanath Poojary and Anand Nayak assisted him.

Lalitha was the only elegible candidate for the post of the president as per the reservation norm and she was elected unanimously.

The total strength of the panchayat is 33 members, out of which BJP has 17 members and Congress 16. As one member of the BJP was absent, both the BJP and Congress candidates for the vice-president's post got equal number of votes.

The election officer then decided to choose the vice-president by picking chits. A reporter picked the chit and Anand became the lucky winner. Chaos prevailed for a while with protests erupting over the manner of choosing the vice-president.

Tight police protection was deployed under the charge of Bantwal circle inspector Anil S Kulkarni.

It is said that Jayanthi Poojary, the BJP member who was absent, had been coaxed to do so by the Congress leaders. Nevertheless, Congress had to still bite the dust as fate favoured BJP.

Lalitha is a member of Kepu taluk panchayat and Anand is from Narikombu taluk panchayat.

Leaders like Padmanabha Kottari, Devdas Shetty, Dinesh Bhandary, Ronald D’Souza, Chennappa Kotian, Santosh Kumar Rai, Ramdas, Nemiraj Rai, Purushottam Salian Shamboor, G Anand and others were present.