The Hindu
MANGALORE, Jan 18: Sushma Janardhan of the Bharatiya Janata Party, representing Kotekar, was elected president of the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat here on Wednesday.
Janardhan defeated Mamatha Gatti of the Congress by one vote. While 15 BJP members and three Janata Dal (Secular) members voted in her favour, 17 members, including two from the Janata Dal (S) voted for Ms. Gatti.
The election was necessitated as Ms. Gatti was voted out on December 29 after 18 members of the BJP-Janata Dal (S) combine moved a no-confidence motion against her.
Ms. Janardhan will serve as president for the remainder of the 20-month tenure for which Ms. Gatti was initially elected, which will be till September 27, 2007.
A.S. Srikanth, Regional Commissioner, Mysore, conducted the election.The members indicated their preference by raising their hands, and later affixed their signatures in a register to confirm their choice.
While Krishna Shetty and Jagannath Salian filed two sets of nomination papers on behalf of Ms. Janardhan, Santhosh Kumar Bhandary and Shahul Hameed did so for Ms. Gatti. Asha Thimmappa Gowda filed the nomination papers on behalf of Shayana Jayanand (BJP) for the post. However, Ms. Jayanand later withdrew.
Congress members raised objections about the candidature of Ms. Janardhan stating that she did not represent the BCM (A) category for which the post was reserved. They also sought her disqualification as a member of the House. Mr. Srikanth, who heard the arguments of BJP and Congress members, overruled the objections and declared Ms. Janardhan's nomination valid.
Action sought
The BJP-Janata Dal (S) combine has decided to move a no-confidence motion against panchayat vice-president P. Dharanendra Kumar.
Mr. Kumar, from Janata Dal (S), did not support Ms. Janardhan's candidature in the election.
B. Nagaraj Shetty, district in-charge Minister, and Abdul Azeem, MLC and observer from Janata Dal (S), told this to presspersons after the election. Mr. Azeem spoke to M.P. Prakash, State unit president of Janata Dal (S), apprised him of the developments over phone.
Shetty said it was a decision taken jointly by leaders of both the parties.
Mr. Shetty said that that a new chapter of political cooperation had begun in Dakshina Kannada with BJP and Janata Dal (S) sharing power in the panchayat on the lines of a similar arrangement at State-level. He said the ruling combine would lay greater emphasis on working for the overall development of the district. Programmes pertaining to providing drinking water to rural areas, power supply and roads would be given importance along with other development works, he added.
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