Udupi ZP elections postponed due to lack of quorum

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Oct 5, 2012:Since the BJP members of the Udupi Zilla Panchayat (ZP) did not attend the elections, scheduled to be held on Oct 4, Thursday, the quorum was not filled and the election had to be postponed to Oct 12.

 

 

ZP rules mandate that at least 13 of the total 25 members ought to be present for any elections to take place. Nine of Udupi ZP members are from the Congress and 16 are from the BJP. Since only nine Congress members were present, Election Commissioner Jayanthi announced that the election cannot take place. She made the above announcement after waiting for nearly 30 minutes for the BJP members to turn up.

The ZP members have been fighting over the issue of election candidates. The chief troublemakers are 8 people, all supporters of MLA Halady Shrinivas Shetty who demand that Kundapur should get adequate representation. Gowri Devadiga, Ganapathy T. Shriyan, Babu Shetty, Mamatha Shetty, Rashwath Shetty, Indira Shetty, Prasad T. Mendon, and Jyothi Sitaram Shetty wanted Babu Shetty to be the candidate.

The above group, however, developed differences of opinion and split into a separate group with Gowri Devadiga as its leader and another group with Babu Shetty as its leader. The rest of the BJP members, however, refused to join either group and suggested Upendra Nayak. Finally, four candidates were ready to contest for the post of Udupi ZP president—K. Diwakar of the Congress party, Upendra Nayak of the BJP party, and Babu Shetty and Prakash Mendon from the above-mentioned group of 8 BJP members.

The air is also thick with rumors that the 8 rebels are negotiating with the Congress. Although Katpady Shankar Poojary, the current ZP president, had previously extended his support to the 8 rebels, he later said that he only wanted to convince them, not join them.

Immediately after the elections were postponed, the Congress protested outside the ZP office and shouted slogans against the absent BJP members.

BJP’s press meet

The BJP called a press conference and said that there are 16 BJP members in the Udupi ZP, but they could not appear for the elections because of internal conflicts. They said that they were busy trying to resolve their internal conflicts, owing to which they could not attend the election.

MLA Raghupathi Bhat flayed his own party and said that the BJP leaders have made a mistake by violating a democratic procedure. He said that strict action will be taken against the 8 rebels, who are opposing the very party that brought them to power. He declared that only Upendra Nayak can be the nominee.

Regarding BJP’s action of boycotting the elections, he said that the BJP wanted to avoid giving an advantage to the opposition, owing to which they did not attend the election.

Udaykumar Shetty, district president of the BJP, expressed hopes that the internal conflicts will be resolved by Oct 12. District-in-charge Minister Kota Shrinivas Poojary said that the party leaders will accept Udaykumar Shetty’s decisions.