Diwakara and Janaki alias Vedavathi from the BJP were elected as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Mangaluru, respectively, in an election conducted on February 28.
Mr. Diwakara is a three-time councillor while Ms. Janaki has been elected to the council for the second time.
The Mayor represents Cantonment ward while the Deputy Mayor is from Kulai ward.
The BJP enjoys majority in Mangaluru City Corporation council. In the 60-member council, the BJP won 44 seats, the Congress 14 and the Social Democratic Party of India two seats in the election held on November 12, 2019.
As two BJP MLAs, D. Vedavyasa Kamath from Mangaluru City South and Y. Bharat Shetty from Mangaluru City North, and a Congress MLC, Ivan D'Souza, enjoyed voting powers in the Mayoral election, the BJP could get two more votes, making it 46 votes. The Congress could get one more vote of Mr. D'Souza, thus the party got a total of 15 votes.
Mr. Diwakara defeated K. Keshava from the Congress 46-15. Ms. Janaki defeated Zeenat Shamsuddin from the Congress 46-17.
The two councillors of SDPI remained neutral while casting their votes to the Mayoral candidate. However they voted in favour of Ms. Shamsuddin, while voting for the Deputy Mayoral candidate.
The office of Mayor had been reserved for a councillor from the Backward Class A category and the office of Deputy Mayor had been reserved for general category woman councillor.
The BJP has been elected to power in the corporation for a five-year term for the second time. It was elected to the corporation for a five-year term for the first time in 2007. The Congress made it to the council by defeating BJP in 2013.
V. Yashwant, Regional Commissioner, Mysuru Division, conducted the Mayoral election.
