Udupi: ZP Elections Postponed to Oct 12 as BJP Stays Away
Pics: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SM)
Udupi, Oct 4: The controversial elections to the Udupi zilla panchayat on Thursday October 4 turned out to be a no-show, with all the BJP members deciding to stay away.
As a result, the quorum was not filled and the election was postponed to October 12.
As per the zilla panchayat rules, a minimum of 13 out of the 25 members should have been present for elections to take place. Of the 25, nine are from Congress and 16 from BJP.
As only the nine from Congress were present, election commissioner Jayanti announced that the election cannot take place as the quorum, that is, the minimum number of members required to be present, was not filled. The announcement came after 30 minutes of fruitless waiting for BJP members.
BJP's boycott comes in the wake of controversy dogging the party over election candidates. As such, the party is divided into two groups, with 8 rebels, miffed supporters of former MLA Halady Srinivas Shetty, demanding representation from Kundapur and vouching for Babu Shetty as the candidate.
The eight rebels are Gowri Devadiga, Babu Shetty, Ganapathy T Shriyan, Mamatha Shetty, Indira Shetty, Rashwath Shetty, Jyoti Sitaram Shetty and Prakash Mendon.
However, it is said that the rebel group further split with one led by Gowri Devadiga and the other by Babu Shetty.
However, the rest of the BJP refused to bow to their demands and rooted for Upendra Nayak. In the end, there were four candidates for the post of the ZP president - K Diwakar from Congress, Upendra Nayak from BJP, and Babu Shetty and Prakash Mendon from the rebel BJP group.
Rumours were also doing the rounds that the rebels were in talks with the Congress.
Interestingly, earlier in the day Katapady Shankar Poojary, the current ZP president, said that he would be supporting the rebels, but later he said that he had only attempted to convince them and not join.
Following the postponement, Congress went on a flash protest outside the ZP office and shouted slogans condemning BJP for not showing up for the elections.
BJP Explains
Later, BJP leaders convened a press meet to explain their action and said that the BJP holds majority in the zilla panchayat with 16 members, but because of internal issues they did not turn up for the elections.
They said that they did not have enough time to resolve the issue and hence could not convince the rebels and unite them. "That is why we did not enter the election venue," they said.
MLA Raghupati Bhat lashed out at his own party and said that the 'BJP had done a mistaken by violating the democratic process'.
He decisively said that strict action will be taken against the rebel members who he said had become ZP members through BJP and are now opposing the same party. "There will not be any nominee other than Upendra Nayak," he asserted.
On today's no-show, he said BJP wanted to give a chance to its own members than give advantage to the opposition. Hence they deciced to stay away completely.
Party district president Udaykumar Shetty who was at the press meet hoped that all issued would be sorted by October 12 and smooth elections would take place.
Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary said that any decision taken by Udaykumar Shetty would be accepted.
Katapady Shankar Poojary was also present.