Mangalore: Did Overconfidence Cost BJP the Mayoral Post?
Prakash Samaga
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (PS)
Mangalore, Mar 7: Following BJP's debacle in the Mangalore City Corporation mayoral elections held on Wednesday March 7 when it lost a big opportunity owing to a silly mistake, political circles within the MCC and various offices and intellectuals opine that the delay in announcing the party candidate caused embarassment to the BJP as well as to its candidate.
The fact was evident even as BJP mayoral candidate Roopa D Bangera, whose nomination was rejected by the returning officer, was seen contemplating the outcome. Till last night the name of Shantha was making the rounds as the final candidate from BJP, but at a party leaders' meeting held on Wedneday morning, caste politics took centre stage and the party leaders decided to field Roopa D Bangera.
The 'attitude' factor was raised by one of the independent corporators in MCC who said RSS-backed Roopa D Bangera was highly confident of victory, to the extent that she neglected the suggestion of the concerned to scrutinize her nomination papers to ensure that proper caste certificate was attached. Sources said that she did get the caste certificate, but the wrong one - she was supposed to get a certificate of 2D category which she did not. It is also said that the BJP was overconfident as it is the ruling party and did not give attention to such details.
However, Congress candidate and now the mayor of Mangalore, Gulzar Banu, was sensible enough in ensuring that she had filed the nomination with all the required details. Sources also said that the Congress was in fact aware of BJP's mistake beforehand, but remained tight-lipped all through.
At the election, though the candidates were told to submit the caste certificate on time today, Roopa delayed it. But when the delay in turn affected the election procedures, the opposition leaders raised the issue with the election officer, who finally took the ‘neutral’ decision of rejecting the nomination as Roopa did not withdraw her name within the 10 minutes time prescribed as per the election code of conduct.
As Congress made its way to the mayoral post and BJP is the ruling party in MCC, the remaining 1 CPI(M), 2 independent and 1 JD(S) members were seen announcing, ‘Now we are the authoritative Opposition party in MCC'.
Some in the MCC premises opined that BJP did not field a dummy candidate as the party was afraid of the fact that the candidate would refuse to withdraw her nomination at the last moment.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders did not forget to appreciate and praise the impartial decision of Jayanthi, the election officer. Corporator Maryamma Thomas even stood up a step higher on the aisle and said Jayanthi took a such an impartial decision because she is a woman.
All said and done, it may not be an easy ride for the new mayor, given the fact that the majority in the MCC are from the ruling party, including her deputy.