Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Feb 18: This time, as per reservation criterion, the post of the mayor of the city has been earmarked for female candidate from general category. Congress has 14 women corporators and therefore it is faced with the problem of too many vying for the post of the mayor.
Date has not yet been fixed for the mayoral election this time. Congress corporators, who are 35 in number, can be seen discussing the issue in groups, and trying to strike consensus for a particular candidate of their choice. The aspirants are buzzing around powerful leaders for support, since the day the state high court dismissed a petition that had questioned the reservation criterion fixed for this election recently.
As per current indications, the candidates who seem to be ahead of others in the race for the post of the first citizen of the city happen to be Pratibha Kulai, Kavita Sanil, and Appi. While district in-charge minster, Ramanath Rai, has the potential to decide on the candidate, it is said that he prefers a candidate with overwhelming support from the corporators. It is said that Kavita Sanil has the backing of the minister, but her candidature is being opposed by a large section of the Congress corporators. Rai therefore has reportedly asked Kavita to win over the confidence of the corporators so that she can be projected as a mayoral candidate.
Pratibha Kulai, Kavita Sanil and Appi
Pratibha represents Hosabettu ward while Kavita represents Pachchanady ward. Mangalore north MLA, Mohiuddin Bava, has said that he is fine with both of them the wards they represent fall within his constituency. However, it is said that internally, he is backing the candidature of Pratibha. Both belong to Billava community.
The third person who also has some support for being fielded by the Congress for the cost happens to be Appi. Even though she belongs to scheduled caste, she got elected from a general constituency. Hence there is support for her candidature too, it is learnt. She might emerge as a surprise candidate if the tussle between Pratibha and Kavita intensifies and he party fails to decide on any one among lthem.
In the meanwhile, a delegation of corporators led by senior corporator, Bhaskar Moily, submitted a memorandum to Rai, seeking to field a candidate with unblemished track record. The delegation is supposedly opposed to the choice of Kavita's candidature as she had left th eparty earlier and fought the election.
The post of the deputy mayor has been earmarked for candidate from scheduled tribe category.