Silvester D'Souza

Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur

Kundapur, Aug 29: Mohanadas Shenoy of the BJP has been elected as the president for the second term of the Kundapur municipality, which had been struggling without an administrative committee for the past year. He defeated Congress candidate Chandrashekhar Kharvi by a margin of 16-8 votes. Vanitha S Billava, a general female member of the BJP, was elected vice president, defeating Congress's Kamala Poojary by the same margin. Laxmi Bai, a member of the municipality, was absent during the election.

The Kundapur municipality has a total of 23 seats. Of these, 14 are held by BJP members, 8 by Congress members, and 1 by an independent member. Both the local MLA and MP were also eligible to vote. Out of 25 total voters, Mohanadas Shenoy of the BJP received 16 votes, which included 14 BJP votes and 2 votes from the MLA and MP. Congress member Chandrashekhar Kharvi, who contested for the president's post, received 8 votes from Congress members.

The election process was conducted by Kundapur tahsildar Shobha Lakshmi, with Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Kota Srinivas Poojary and Kundapur MLA Kiran Kumar Kodgi present. The Chief Officer of the municipality, Anand, oversaw the proceedings.

Mohanadas Shenoy, who has previously served four times as a municipal member and twice as president, has now been elected president for the third time. Before the election process, a meeting of municipal members was convened at the BJP office. The BJP leadership successfully managed to resolve any dissatisfaction among aspirants and subsequently instructed Mohanadas Shenoy and Vanitha Billava to submit their nominations for the posts of president and vice president.