Mangalore is waiting for its Mayor

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, September 26, 2013: It may not be any exaggeration to say that the city of Mangalore is waiting for its new Mayor. It has been a long wait since March  this year  when elections were held to the civic body and even results declared.

The Congress unseated the BJP to win a majority and was awaiting the formation of the new council when elections to the state assembly were announced. This further delayed the reservation announcement and finally it was in August that the newly elected Congress government announced the reservations on the basis of roster system. In Mangalore, the mayor post was reserved for a general category lady candidate, while the  Deputy Mayor’s post to a general category candidate.

The announcement of reservations  saw hectic political  activities in the Congress camp with several names emerging frontrunners for the  two posts. But came as a dampener was the writ filed in the High Court by Kudroli Corporator Azeez Kudroli of the JD(S)  challenging the reservation. That certainly spoiled the show for the Congress. Azeez felt rules had been flouted while announcing the reservation and contended that  a lady candidate had been given chance thrice in the past six year period. As expected the high court has issued an interim stay  and the elections to the two posts slated for September 12 stood postponed.

The development came as a shock to the Congress camp which had almost finalized the name of senior corporator Jacintha Alfred. Now that there is a stay, it will be a wait for some more days until elections are held. However, the reason that prompted a JD(S) Corporator to go to the court against the reservations announced, when he can practically not influence the election of mayor in any way (his party has won just two seats), left  many wondering.

But it did not take too long for the skeleton to roll down the cupboard. Soon rumours were  afloat that some ruling Congress Corporators were themselves behind the act of the JD(S) Corporator.  The argument was that some senior Congress Corporators who felt they may not get a chance in the next four year tenure of the Congress in case Jacintha, a minority community candidate was given the Mayor post this time, had tried to have their way through Azeez Kudroli.
It is being said that the name of the corporator  who played spoilsport is known within the Congress circles.The issue even came up at a meeting convened by district minister Ramanatha Rai recently to finalise the party’s mayoral candidate. Rai in fact  said he was aware of the matter and commented that anyone who has done so deserves a good thrashing with slippers.

Nonetheless this episode had proved that all is not well within the Congress camp. Though the party had put up a united front during the MCC polls and even the Assembly polls later on, things took a ugly turn when it came to the race for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

In this backdrop, the  Puttur TMC chief elections where the Congress lost despite a majority, should serve as an eye opener. The Congress had won the Puttur TMC elections  with a majority 15 seats. Though its seats had reduced to 14 following the demise of one of the members,  it ought to have won the election to the post of TMC President and Vice President. But that was not to be. The race for the top post  between two ladies  led to a deadlock. Though the party had chosen its official candidate, the other  member who was hell bent upon contesting, too filed her nomination and eventually won with BJP support. Even the post of Vice President went to the BJP. The BJP had chosen to take advantage of the differences within the Congress and played spoilsport for the party.

Let the Congress in Mangalore learn a lesson from the Puttur episode. Let there be a consensus choice for the post of mayor and deputy mayor. Of course, the corporators are elected to serve their wards and not to  be in the race for the top posts.

Already the absence of a ruling body has hit hard the developmental projects of Mangalore. No new projects are undertaken, neither are tenders invited. Only the works taken up  much earlier are being completed as of now.

A growing city like Mangalore needs good and pro-people administration by the party that is enjoying majority. Let all hurdles be cleared and Mangalore have a new Mayor very soon. Mangalore needs to prosper and progress. The growing city has multitude of problems. It is only an efficient administration that may be able to tackle the problems.n