Udupi: BJP's Gladys Almeida Elected President of Zilla Panchayat

Pics: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Aug 26: As expected, zilla panchayat member from the BJP, Gladys D Almeida, who was pitted against BJP's official candidate Veena Vasu Shetty, came out victorious in the election to the post of the zilla panchayat president, held today in the zilla panchayat hall, with the support of the Congress Party. The victory of Almeida came as a slap on the face of the BJP, which failed to read the writing on the wall beforehand. She will be the president of the zilla panchayat here for 17 months, the remaining term of the zilla panchayat.

Udupi zilla panchayat had 14 Congress members and 11 from the BJP. With the defection of Congress member B N Shankar Poojary to the BJP for various reasons during the recent Lok Sabha election, the number stood changed to 13 and 12. After the state government decided to reserve the post of the president of this zilla panchayat for a lady candidate from backward class 'B' category, only two candidates, Veena Vasu Shetty and Gladys D Almeida became eligible to contest. As both belong to the BJP, the Congress members had alleged that the government had announced the reservation policy to suit its interests.

Gladys Almeida got 14 votes, as against Veena's 11, with the support of Congress members. The election was conducted by the show of hands. Mysore  regional commissioner M V Jayanti conducted the election, assisted by assistant regional commissioner Manjunath Nayak.  Zilla panchayat chief executive officer Prasanna Kumar was present.

Dr Santosh Kumar Shetty of the Congress defeated BJP's nominee for the post of the vice-president, Upendra Nayak, by the same margin of votes as that of the president. This post was earmarked for general category. Three nominations each were filed for the posts of the president and vice-president, of which, two were received in favour of Gladys Almeida and Dr Santosh Kumar Shetty. No nomination was withdrawn.

Gladys D Almeida, who was a Congress zilla panchayat member earlier, had joined the BJP after her relationship with former minister Vasant Salian turned sour in the year 2004. With this revolt against her own party, there is every likelihood, that she will join the Congress Party, although she is yet to confirm this move. Gladys had been a member of Shirva Mandal Panchayat from the year 1987 to 1992 and a member of Shirva gram panchayat from 1993 onwards. She was a zilla panchayat member from 2000 and 2005, but in 2004, she resigned her seat and got elected as zilla panchayat member on a BJP ticket from Yellur constituency.

Dr Santosh Kumar Shetty is a physician by profession, practising at Ajekar near Karkala. He represents Bajagoly constituency. He has been a zilla panchayat member since the year 2005. Earlier, he was the president of Karkala Agricultural Produce Market Committee.

Karkala MLA Gopal Bhandary, former MP Vinay Kumar Sorake and district Congress President M A Gafoor, who were present, congratulated Gladys and Santosh Kumar Shetty on their victory.

Earlier, both Veena and Gladys had said that they would abide by the party's decision, but both had expressed their interest in contesting the election. MLC Kota Srinivas Poojary had hoped to arrive at a consensus before the election process was set into motion, but failed to do so.