Congress' Sampath Rai becomes Bengaluru mayor as BJP boycotts civic body polls

Bengaluru: Congress’ Sampath Raj was on Thursday elected the 51st Mayor of Bengaluru and its coalition partner JDS’ Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy, the deputy mayor. The election was a cakewalk for the Congress-JDS coalition in the city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike as the Opposition BJP, which has a majority of corporators but lacks the numbers in the electoral college, staged a walkout. [caption id=“attachment_3880051” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption]

Though BJP’s S Muniswamy and Mamatha Vasudeva contested the election to the post of mayor and deputy mayor respectively, they lost badly as they secured nil votes. The tenure of the Bengaluru mayor and deputy mayor is for 11 months.

Besides the corporators, elected MPs, MLAs and the MLCs too are entitled to vote to elect the mayor and deputy mayor. This year, the post of mayor and deputy mayor was reserved for Scheduled Caste and women from General Category respectively. Speaking to reporters after the election, Sampath Raj said, “We will take people along. We will ensure public  participation in governance.” “I will see to it that the Bengaluru’s infrastructure improves. You will notice the  changes happening from today itself,” he added.