Fifty Four years of History smashed: BJP captured Bangalore Corporation-20 Tamils elected as councilors

Sathyalaya Ramakrishnan reporting from Chennai

Chennai, 06 April, (Asiantribune.com):

In the fifty four years of Bangalore Corporation history, first time Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) captured the civic body with the thumping majority.

The ruling BJP in Karnataka has captured power in Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) by securing a clear majority in the 198 ward civic body.

The BJP bagged 112 wards out of 194, whose results had been declared, forcing the Opposition Congress and JD (S) to be content with just 61 and 14 wards respectively.

T

he independents and others emerged victorious in seven wards.

The emphatic victory, which comes at a time when the BJP is at the helm of affairs in the State, brings the saffron party to power for the first time in the civic body.

An elated Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa thanked the voters for reposing faith in the party and promised to transform the city into a “model city”. He promised to devote a couple of hours every day for development of the city.

Out of 20 Tamils elected as councilors, nine of them belong to BJP.

"Our Chief Minister Yeduyurappa solved the long pending Tamils issue and unveiled the statue of Saint Tamil Poet 'Thiruvaluuvar' in Bengaluru leads lacks of Tamils supported BJP in the civic body election", an enthusiastic BJP worker said.

Minister for Urban Development Suresh Kumar said the Government has reserved the post of Mayor of Bangalore for a candidate from the general category while the post of Deputy Mayor has been reserved for SC. “We will soon finalise a date for the Mayoral polls”, he said.

However, the Congress party has cried foul over BJP’s triumph in the civic body polls and charged the ruling party of misusing official machinery, besides using money and muscle power to influence voters.

Prominent winners include former Congress Mayors K. Chandrashekar, also a former MLA, and M.Narayanaswamy and former leader of the Opposition in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Ganghabhyraiah, BJP.

BJP candidate from Vasanth Nagar Katta Jagadish Naidu, who is also son of Minister for Information Technology Katta Subramanya Naidu, has registered a victory. Similiarly, Rajarajeshwarinagar BJP MLA M. Srinivas’ son Venkatesh Babu has won.

However, former Mayor P.R. Ramesh, who was instrumental in forcing BBMP polls on an apparently reluctant State Government by moving the High Court and Supreme Court, lost the elections. So did Mahalakshmi Layout assembly segment’s Congress MLA N L Narendra Babu’s brother N.L. Ravishankar.

A host of former corporators, who will be returning to the BBMP Council include N. Shantakumar, S.K. Nataraj, M. Nagaraj, K. Nanjundappa, M. Udayshankar, Satyanarayana, P.N. Sadashiva and M.K. Gunashekar.

- Asian Tribune -