Udupi: High Court Issues Stay Order on Zilla Panchayat Elections
Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi
Udupi, Oct 11: The controversy-ridden Udupi zilla panchayat election which was scheduled to be held on Friday October 12, after being postponed on October 4, has been postponed by a week again.
The high court on Thursday October 11 ordered a stay on the election and postponed it by a week. However, the exact date has not been announced.
File Photo
It may be recalled that on October 4, the election was postponed to October 12 after BJP members failed to turn up. Due to lack of quorum, the election officer, as per panchayat rules, did not proceed with the election, much to the chagrin of Congress members.
Congress candidate for the ZP president's post K Diwakar Kunder then filed a plea in the high court stating that according to a government order, the election should should have taken place even if the quorum was not filled. However, the court ordered a stay on the elections.
The faction-ridden BJP has eight of its 16 ZP members turning rebels and demanding representation from Kundapur. The rebels, supporters of former MLA Halady Srinivas Shetty, nominated Babu Shetty and Prakash V Mendon for the post of president and Mamatha Poojary for vice-president, while the party nominated Upendra Nayak for president and Indira Shetty for vice-president. As the party failed to reach a consensus, all the 16 members decided to stay away from the election on October 4.
However, on Thursday October 11, the BJP convened a meeting and finalized the nominations, taking into account the rebels' demand. The final nominations are Upendra Nayak for president's post and Mamatha Shetty for vice-president from BJP, and Diwakar Kunder and Supritha Deepak Shetty from Congress for the posts of president and vice-president respectively.