Compromise formula avoids clash between parties

A political fight between the Congress and rival group of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Jan Surajya party (JSP) of state minister Vinay Kore was avoided at the eleventh hour with the result that the corporator belonging to the NCP"�JSP group Uday Salokhe was unanimously elected as mayor of the Kolhapur municipal corporation (KMC) while that of the Congress group Ms Smita Mane was elected as deputy mayor on Monday.

The clash and electoral fight was almost unavoidable as the two groups were trying to grab corporators of rival groups with horse trading tactics and money power which was reportedly amounted to Rs 30-40 lakhs for each vote.

The matter and bargaining strategies were openly discussed and was being exposed in local print media. However the compromise formula was reached at the eleventh hour with the understanding that the post of mayor and deputy mayor will be with each group alternatively for the period of fifteen months.

According to the compromise formula, after fifteen months the Congress group will have its mayor while the NCP-JSP will have the post of deputy mayor.