Mangalore: K P Sucharita Shetty of JD (S) is New ZP President

Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (MM/NR/AP)

 Mangalore, Sep 22: In a rather remarkable turn of events, K P Sucharita Shetty of JD (S) has been elected as the President of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat (DKZP) for the next 20 months.

He was elected as the President on Saturday, 22 September, after he defeated Aziz Malar, his own party candidate by one vote. 18 among 35 Zilla Panchayat members voted for Sucharita Shetty and 17 votes went in favour of Aziz Malar.

Amongst the 35 Zilla Panchayat members, both Congress and BJP consist of 15 members each, whereas the remaining 5 are the JD (S) members. The winning candidate Sucharita Shetty was supported by BJP and Aziz Mallar was supported by Congress.

During the last elections, Aziz Mallar played an instrumental role in splitting votes in favour of BJP and electing Sushma Janardhan  of BJP as ZP president. But this time Mallar himself was the candidate for the post, and was backed by Congress to contest for the post of ZP president.

The post of Vice president was reserved for Schedule Caste candidate, and as there was no opposition, Jayashree Kodandur of Congress unanimously elected as Vice president

District in-charge minister Nagaraj Shetty, JD (S) District President Balaraj Rai, BJP District President Monappa Bhandary and other leaders felicitated the newly elected president and vice-president on this occasion.