Following the conduction of mayoral elections in Mangaluru in Karnataka, the results were declared on Tuesday. Premanand Shetty, a corporator belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was elected as the mayor of Mangaluru on Tuesday. Shetty is a five-time corporator from the Mangaladevi ward in the city and he had won the election by defeating Anil Kumar from the Congress party.
Sumangala Rao, the BJP corporator from Kunjathbail South ward, was elected as the deputy Mayor of Mangaluru after she had defeated Jacintha Vijaya Alfred, the Congress party’s candidate. Shetty and Rao had secured 46 votes each in the election, and had defeated both the Congress candidates by a margin of 32 votes each. The term of the incumbent Mayor and Deputy Mayor, Diwakar Pandeshwar and Vedavathi, both belonging to the BJP, ended on Sunday, February 28. The election for the posts of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the city was conducted by Mr GC Prakash, who is the regional commissioner of Mysuru, and served as the Election Officer during the elections.
The Mangaluru City Corporation Council consists of 60 members. The BJP has 44 seats and enjoys a majority in the council. The Congress and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) also have 14 and 2 seats respectively in the council. The two SDPI candidates remained neutral. Reportedly, Mangaluru City South MLA D Vedavyasa Kamath, Mangaluru City North MLA Y Bharath Shetty, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and MLC M Farooq had voting rights in this mayoral election.
Mr Kamath and Mr Bharat Shetty voted for Mr Premanand and Mrs Sumangala, the candidates from their party in the elections. The post of the mayor of Mangaluru was reserved for the general category and the post of the deputy mayor for women from the general category for the 22nd tenure.