Mounesh Vishwakarma

Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (EP)

Bantwal, Nov 7: Congress party candidates were elected as president and vice president of Bantwal municipal council owing to last-minute adjustments between Congress and SDPI. Veteran member Mohammed Sharif Parlia is elected president while Jacintha D’Souza as vice president.

The post of president was reserved for the general category and that of vice president was reserved for backward class (B) category. Therefore, BJP’s senior member A Govinda Prabhu, Congress party’s Mohammed Sharif and SDPI’s Monish Ali had submitted nominations. Similarly, BJP’s Meenakshi Gowda and Congress’s Jacintha D’Souza had filed nominations for the post of vice president. SDPI candidate Monish Ali withdrew his nomination before the election process. Congress received 16 votes with the support of SDPI owing to which Congress’s Mohammed Sharif Parlia was elected president and Jacintha D’Souza got elected as vice president.

BJP’s Govinda Prabhu and Meenakshi Gowda received 13 votes each with the votes of MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and MLA Rajesh Naik Ulippadi.

The municipal council with the total strength of 27 members has 12 Congress seats, 11 BJP and 4 SDPI seats.

Minorities welcomed

This is the first time that the posts of vice president have gone to minorities’ communities. Vasu Poojary of Congress was the main aspirant for president’s post but the party asked Sharif to file nominations causing dissatisfaction in the party. However Bantwal block Congress president Baby Kunder said to reporters that Sharif was unanimously selected candidate. SDPI member Monish Ali said that SDPI supported Congress only to keep BJP aside and for administration free from corruption.

Mohammed Sharif who was elected president said that his priorities are implementing the 24x7 drinking water project of the minister, disposal of trash and doing away with double taxation. Jacintha D’Souza was elected for the council for the second time from Melkar. Former minister Ramanath Rai, block Congress president Baby Kunder, Sudeep Shetty, district panchayat member Chandraprakash Jain, M S Mohammed, Mamatha Gatty, taluk panchayat vice president Abbas Ali, corporator Shashidhar Hegde, Hemanth Shetty and others have congratulated the new president and vice president.

Nalin Kumar says 'true colors of parties are exposed'

State BJP president speaking to reporters after the elections said that Congress won due to inner compromise between Congress and SDPI though BJP had 13 votes. The parties had earlier announced that there will be no compromise but they have shown that they are two faces of the same coin. Congratulating the president and vice president he said that BJP will support as MP for development. MLA Rajesh Naik was present.