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The BJP, on Tuesday, bagged both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor post in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) polls.
M Goutham Kumar, who represents Jogupalya ward was elected as the Mayor, and CR Ramamohan Raju, Councillor of Bommanahalli was elected the Deputy Mayor.
The BJP central leadership chose new faces for the posts — a deviation from usual practice of selecting people through consensus.
Both Goutham Kumar and Ramamohan Raju secured 129 votes. The Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) combine fielded Dattatreya Temple Councillor RS Sathyanarayana and Shakti Ganapathi Nagar Councillor Gangamma Rajanna for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts, respectively. While Sathyanarayana secured 112 votes, Rajanna secured 116 votes.
A senior BJP functionary said: “Today’s elections is a lesson to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. For the BJP leader, who also holds Bengaluru development portfolio, had constituted a committee involving city MLAs to choose candidates, but the party central leadership overrode it and chose its own candidates.”
The BJP, despite emerging single largest party in the BBMP elections held in 2015, was kept out as it fell short on numbers in the electoral college. In the 198 seat civic corporation, the BJP had won 101 seats but was not able to get the post of mayor or deputy mayor. The Congress-Janata Dal combine managed the electoral college well and held on the posts for all these four years.
Economically, Bengaluru is major hub in the State which generates nearly 60 per cent of its revenues and is the most important for any political party and is a major battleground in the State political stage.
The city has 28 Assembly seats spread across three urban Lok Sabha constituencies. In addition, the city has the ability to influence the neighbouring districts of Kolar, Tumakuru, Chikkaballapur, Hassan, Mandya and Mysuru.
Despite numbers, the BJP waited all these years and finally it got a chance when a few Congress and JD(S) MLAs from the city were disqualified by the then Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar earlier this year. The absence of five city MLAs — Munirathna, ST Somashekhar, Byrathi Basavaraj, K Gopalaiah and R Roshan Baig — gave the BJP a chance to win the Bengaluru civic polls.
Of the total 257 members in the electoral college, including Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs, MLAs and MLCs from the city, 249 were present.
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