Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (GA)
Pics - Ganesh S Perla

Mangalore, Jan 20: JD (S) candidate Ranganath Shetty has unanimously been elected as the president of Taluk Panchayat on Friday January 19.  BJP-JD (S) coalitions is currently in power in the taluk panchayat and as per the decision of both the parties Ranganath Shetty was elected president.

The election took place after president Gokuladas Shetty resigned as TP president as per the ruling terms and common understanding among both the parties.  Accordingly, Ranganath Shetty was the lone candidate for the post since Congress did not field anyone.

The BJP-JD (S) coalition has 19 seats (BJP 15 and JD (S) 4) in the 37 seat taluk panchayat.  Congress has 16 seats and Communist party has 2.  In the last election, the Communist party members had supported Congress.  But on Friday 4 Congress members and both Communist party members were absent.

As per the understanding between BJP and JD (S) both the parties had agreed to share the presidentship for a period of 10 months each.  Accordingly Gokuldas Shetty of BJP had resigned on December 21, 2006.

Assistant Commissioner Krishnamurthy presided over the meeting while tahsildar Ramchandra and CEO Kantaraju were also present.