The Hindu

Mangalore, Sep 26: With the High Court clearing the dispute over the Mayor's post for Mangalore in favour of Vijaya Arun, the extended term of Mayor K Ashraf has come to an end and the stage is set for the mayoral elections.

Vijaya has won the court verdict for Congress in a bitter fight against the Government over the reservation category change from general women to general for Mayor's post.

Even as the corporation awaits directions from the Urban Development ministry to go ahead with the elections the three main contenders for the post are Vijaya Arun, Surekha Rai and Sesamma.

According to the outgoing Mayor K Ashraf, the notification from the Urban Development Ministry is to reach here on Wednesday, which will set the calendar of events for the election of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and chairpersons for the standing committee in motion.

But since the district in-charge Minister B Nagaraj Shetty asked the Law Department to go into the reservation category pattern followed by the corporation in the last ten terms, the matter ended in court.

The Law Department was ready to appeal before the full Bench but the BJP corporators under the advice of the MLAs N Yogish Bhat and Krishna Palemar apprised the Minister that further appeal in the case would only mean stopping of all development work as the posts would be left vacant.