Dharawad: BJP has won again in Hubballi-Dharawad Corporation. The Congress party, which is holding the helm of power in the state has got a setback in this elections. The Congress party had tasked Jagadish Shettar the Former Chief Minister of Karnataka who switched parties from BJP to Congress, to win the Mayoral elections could not do much. It is a serious set back to both Congress as a party and Jagadish Shettar as a “powerful leader” in this region.
BJP’s Veena Bhardwada has been elected as Mayor and Satish Hanagal as Deputy Mayor. After former CM Jagdish Shettar left the BJP and joined the Congress, the hand force made a lot of efforts to seize power in the corporation. But on hearing the news of Operation Hasta, the BJP members rushed to the resort. Now Kamala has won the 22nd mayoral election and continues to dominate City again.
While 46 votes were cast for Veena Baradwada of BJP who was the mayoral candidate, 37 votes were cast for Suvarna of Congress party. AIMIM’s Waheeda Khanam got three votes. As soon as the result was announced, the BJP workers burst firecrackers outside the corporation premises and started the victory celebrations.
Why the Congress party tasked Shettar to upset the Hubballi-Dharawad Municipal Corporation mayoral election hinges on the fact that the second largest corporation in the state, has been ruled by the BJP for more than 15 years. Whether there was an election for the membership of this corporation, who should be stopped and who should be given the mayorship was chosen under the leadership of Former CM Jagadish Shettar and Union Minister Pralhada Joshi. Now that Shettar has left the BJP and joined the Congress, Joshi had taken full responsibility.
Also, this is the first time that BJP has conducted mayor-deputy mayor elections without Shettar. So the Congress tried to take the reins of the corporation’s power somehow through Shettar. But under the leadership of Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, the BJP has continued its dominance in the Corporation.
The Municipal Corporation has a strength of 82 members, while the BJP has 39 members and the Congress has 33 members. There was one from JDS, three from AIMIM and six from non-partisans. Four MLAs, one MP and two Legislative Council members were eligible to vote.