Daijiworld Media Network –Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Mar 12: Election to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of the city are scheduled to be held on Thursday march 13. Congress party is expected to finalize its nominees to these posts today.

Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister, B Ramanath Rai, had convened a meeting of city corporators on Monday to get their opinions about nominating suitable candidates to these two posts. Another meeting is being held today. A meeting of Congress MLAs and top leaders of the district Congress committee is also planned for today. After discussion at these meetings, a clear picture about the party nominees will emerge by Wednesday evening, party sources said.

Mahabala Marla, Bhaskar Moily, Lancelot Pinto and Naveen Dsouza (Not in photo : Harinath)

For this term, the post of the city mayor has been reserved for a candidate from general category. City corporators, Harinath, Lancylot Pinto, Mahabala Marla, Naveen D’Souza and Bhaskar Moily have emerged as forerunners for the post of the mayor. Out of this group, Harinath and Mahabala Marla appear to be having an edge over the others.

Once the name of the candidate for the first citizen of the city is finalized, the candidate for the deputy mayor will be decided. This post is reserved for women from general category. Congress, which commands a strength of 35 in the 60-seat city council,  has 14 women corporators. BJP has 20 corporators, JDS has two, while SDPI and CPM have one corporator each. The city council also has an independent corporator.