Tasneem, a Janata Dal (S) corporator, was elected the 22nd Mayor of Mysuru, while the Congress’ C. Sridhar was chosen Deputy Mayor on Saturday.
The candidates fielded by the JD(S) and Congress, which are in an alliance in the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), defeated Geetha Yoganand and Shantamma, fielded by the BJP for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, respectively. The election was conducted by Regional Commissioner V. Yeshwant.
Ms. Tasneem polled 47 votes, against Ms. Yoganand’s 23. Mr. Sridhar also defeated his BJP rival by 24 votes. Curiously, the BJP members did not raise their hands to oppose the candidature of Ms. Tasneem and Mr. Sridhar. The Congress and JD(S) members also reciprocated by not opposing the corporators fielded by the BJP.
The government had reserved the post of Mayor for BCA woman and Deputy Mayor for SC. Ms. Tasneem, a two-time corporator, represents ward number 26 in MCC while Mr. Sridhar represents ward number 38.
Ms. Tasneem, 34, is a graduate and a mother of two. Her husband, Syed Samiulla, is a social activist.
The understanding between the alliance partners was to have a candidate from the JD(S) as Mayor this time as the Congress’ Pushpalatha Jagannth was chosen as Mayor last time. Out of the four aspirants for the post in the JD(S), who belonged to the right category. The party leadership finalised Ms. Tasneem for the post as she was seen as more active and articulate, according to a former Mayor.
A total of 64 corporators in the 65-member MCC council participated in the election, besides MLCs Marithibbe Gowda, Srikante Gowda, R. Dharmasena, Sandesh Nagaraj, and MLAs G.T. Deve Gowda and L. Nagendra. Pratap Simha, MP, and MLAs Tanveer Sait and S.A. Ramdas were absent.
The BJP has 21 members in the MCC council, after the election of one its members, Guru Vinayak from ward 18, was annulled by the court.
Standing committees
Meanwhile, the election to the posts of seven members of each of the four Standing Committees of the MCC was also held on Saturday. While the Congress and the JD(S) got two posts each, the BJP got the remaining three.
To the Standing Committee on Taxation, Finance and Appeals, Nirmala, Savitha, Soumya, Lakshmi, Akmal Pasha, Samiulla, and G.S. Satyaraju were elected.
To the Standing Committee on Public Health, Education and Social Justice, Shobha, Gopi, Bhagya, Ayaz Pasha, Usha, Sharadamma, and Bhuvaneshwari were elected.
To the Standing Committee on City Planning and Improvement, Syed Hasrathulla, Srinivas, Rukmini, Ramesh, Hajeera Seema, Sunanda Palanetra, and Pramila Bharath were elected.
To the Standing Committee on Accounts and Audit, Ashwini Ananthu, Begum Pallagi, Chayadevi, Vedavathi, Ayub Khan, Arif Hussain, and Pradeep Chandra were elected.
