Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jun 4: The process of election to the posts of presidents and vice presidents for all the zilla panchayats in the state concluded on Friday June 3. At the end, 17 chose Congress candidates as presidents, 10 posts went to BJP, with the remaining three going to JDS.

Ruling Congress succeeded in getting 17 of its candidates elected as presidents in the election. At the same time, elections held at Vijayapura, Kolar, and Hassan witnessed some dramatic developments.

After the completion of counting of votes on February 23 this year, Congress, BJP and JDS had emerged with clear majority in 10, 7, and 2 zilla panchayats respectively. The voters had given split verdict in 11 zilla panchayats where none of the parties got clear majority. After the state government tried to take control of some of the zilla panchayats by manipulating reservation criteria for candidates getting elected, parties fought tooth and nail with each other to bag as many zilla panchayats as possible.

In Hassan zilla panchayat, JDS had emerged as the biggest party, but as the government fixed reservation criteria for presidential candidate as woman from scheduled tribe, it had to concede power to Congress, as it did not have a woman candidate conforming to this criterion. Angered by this, JDS members stayed away from three consecutive sessions of the zilla panchayat, thereby creating lack of quorum, making it impossible to take up election process. However, on Friday, they attended the meeting as otherwise they risked losing zilla panchayat memberships. In this election, Shweta Devaraj of Congress was elected unopposed. The post of the vice president went to JDS with 23-16 margin.

Similarly, at the election held to Vijayapura zilla panchayat, an independent candidate had supported Congress-JDS alliance for the election to keep BJP at bay. With his support, Congress candidate, Neelamma, was elected as president. But in the election to vice president's post, the independent member, Gururaj Patil, unexpectedly voted for Prabhugowda Desai of the BJP, and ensured that BJP candidate became the vice president of this zilla panchayat.

In Kolar zilla panchayat too, Congress had planned to bag the seat with the support of a BJP member. At the last minute, this woman BJP member, Nirmala from Bethamangala, backtracked. Varthur Prakash intervened at this juncture and struck understanding between Congress and JDS, as a result of which the post of vice president went to JDS.