Mangaluru: Harinath elected new mayor of city, Sumitra Kariya deputy

Pics by John V Tauro
Bellevision Media Network

Mangaluru, 11 March 2016: As expected, five-time councilor Harinath, corporator of Marakada ward from the ruling Congress was elected new mayor of Mangaluru city. Suratkal corporator Sumitra Kariya of BJP was elected as the deputy mayor.

 

The mayoral elections were held at the municipal office here on Friday March 11.

 

 

This time, the post of the mayor was reserved for the general category and that of deputy mayor for a woman candidate from SC/ST community.

 

Harinath from Congress and Roopa D Bangera from BJP contested for the mayor’s post. As Congress has no candidate fulfilling the deputy mayor’s reservation criteria, BJP’s Sumitra Kariya was unanimously chosen for the post.

 

Harinath won the elections garnering 36 votes, while Roopa Bangera got the 20 votes of BJP.

 

Speaking to media persons, Harinath thanked district in-charge minister Ramanath Rai and other Congress leaders and said, ‘I had been deprived of this post from many years but this time minister Ramanath Rai and leaders like the two MLAs J R Lobo and Moideen, MLC Ivan D’Souza, minster U T Khader, Congress veterans Veerappa Moily, Oscar Fernandes, Janardhan Poojary and others supported me. I am thankful to them, and I also thank the Congress corporators for voting me. I specially thank Sasidar Hegde for helping me.’ He also urged the opposition BJP to cooperate and support him during his tenure.

 

Sumitra Kariya thanked BJP councilors and party leaders for supporting her and said that she would work for the development of the city during her tenure.

 

Altogether, out of 65 voters including MLAs and MLCs, 62 including J R Lobo were present and cast their votes. 

 

All the 60 corporators were present for the elections. Among them, 35 are from Congress, 20 from BJP, two from JD(S) and one each from CPI (M) and SDPI and an Independent.

 

The returning officer A M Kunjappa conducted the election proceedings that were held in the presence of municipal commissioner Dr H N Gopalkrishna and additional commissioner K M Gayatri.