Stany Bela 

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru 

Mangaluru, Aug 29: After a short break from tussles, rumours and gossips, the political activity among parties to conquer Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) is getting warmer with each passing day. The tenure of the previous city corporation council had ended in the month of March this year. Since then, the entire administration is run by the officials of MCC under the directions of the administrative officer, who happens to be the deputy commissioner of the district. As a step towards putting an end to delay and postponement of the election, the high court, on August 27, instructed the state election commission to complete the election process for MCC before November 15. 

The last election for MCC was held on March 11, 2013. Because of the delay in preparing the reservation list and the state assembly election that was held in between, MCC was ruled by MCC administrative officer for nearly a year. On March 12, 2014, Congress, which got majority in the poll, started to rule the corporation. As the five-year tenure of corporators has ended, it is time for the citizens of Mangaluru to get ready to elect new corporators for the City Corporation. 

In 2013, Congress wave that swept the state and district, reflected in the City Corporation election also. However, the scenario at present is quite the opposite. The state is currently being ruled by the BJP government and both Mangaluru South and Mangaluru North constituencies, which fall under the limits of MCC, are also represented by BJP MLAs. In 2013, the Congress had risen to power and BJP had got only 20 seats. After that, many times, conflicts and differences between ruling party corporators came to light. The internal rivalry of ruling party delayed many projects and developmental works also. But it is also a fact that the opposition did not take much interest in exposing the failure of the ruling party and most of the time they followed the wait and watch policy. 

During the tenure of J R Lobo as the MLA, many Congress corporators also lost interest in administration because of the stress on clean and honest politics. His review meetings, sudden inspections and policy of asking complete details of the projects and their financial aspects made many Congress corporators disappointed. As per political analysis, these corporators were the main reason for blocking J R Lobo from getting a second time in succession from Mangaluru South constituency. BJP also knows that the unhappy Congress corporators played a vital role in BJP candidate’s victory in the last assembly election. 

Now the BJP cadres are confident of rising to power in the City Corporation for the next five years. They are pointing out the margin of votes that were polled in their favour in the assembly elections in Mangaluru South constituency. Apart from that, the BJP is awaiting for major dissidence in the Congress, which is already expected. BJP also believes that MLA Vedavyas Kamath’s working style and the soft corner people have towards him will be a winning factor. They also plan to raise issues like artificial floods in recent years in the city, unscientific developmental works, partially completed projects, internal conflict between ruling corporators and nepotism as causes of failure of the ruling Congress party. 

Meanwhile, Congress leadership is also expecting to retain power for another five years. They expect the territorial committees set up in each of the wards will favour their party. Congress also denies presence of any BJP wave in both the assembly constituencies and says that people will not take assembly elections and local body elections in the same manner. According to the Congress party, the City Corporation election is purely based on local issues and it benefits only their candidates. 

At the same time, Congress is facing dissent within its corporators and ticket aspirants. Many corporators, who are getting tickets from their constituency since the last many years and winning the elections, are not prepared to give a chance to new faces. The local leaders, who eye the candidature for their area and waiting for the same for many years are also a worry for the party. As per sources, many leaders are planning to contest as rebel candidates against the current corporators, who are enjoying the power for more than 15 years. 

Sources reveal that SDPI is also planning to field strong candidates against Congress and BJP and trying to become a deciding factor in the City Corporation. 

However, the political parties are yet to start preparations for the elections. Citizens of Mangaluru will see political calculations, reviews and election process steaming up in the coming days.