Cong-JDS Wins BBMP Polls, Gangambike Mallikarjun Elected Mayor
Congress-JDS alliance won Friday’s BBMP mayor elections, with Congress’ Gangambike Mallikarjun being elected mayor.
The Congress-Janata Dal Secular (JDS) alliance emerged victorious in Friday’s Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Mayor elections, with the Congress’ Gangambike Mallikarjun being elected the 52nd mayor and the JD(S)’ Ramila Umashankar the deputy mayor.
Gangambike, the corporator from Jayanagar ward number 153, secured 130 votes from the council (three more than the required number), Bangalore Mirror reported. Cauvery Pura ward 103 corporator Umashankar received 129 votes.
Fresh elections were called after the terms of the previous mayor, Sampath Raj, and deputy mayor, Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy, ended on Thursday.
Before the election, the Congress had alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to poach its legislators, Zee News reported.
The Congress also hit out against Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman for abstaining from voting, saying that it "shows her interest towards Bengaluru."
According to sources quoted by The Week, the BJP had allegedly hosted the independents in a city resort ahead of the elections. However, the party's strategy seemed to have failed as the Congress managed to win anyway.
"The (Congress-JD(S)) alliance bagging both posts goes to say the coalition government in the state is going steady," Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara was quoted as saying by the report.
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