The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday swept the Mayoral election with Jogupalya ward corporator M Gowtham Kumar elected as Bengaluru Mayor and Bommanhalli corporator C R Ram Mohan Raju as the Deputy Mayor.
Kumar secured 129 votes as against Sathyanarayana (Dattatreya Temple ward) who got 112 in a 249-vote electoral college, which comprises city corporators, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha members, MLAs and the MLCs from Bengaluru.
Raju too got 129 votes as against 108 votes to Gangamma Rajanna, the JD(S) corporator from Shakti Ganapati ward.
Despite emerging as the single largest party in the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) council in 2015 by winning 101 seats out of 198 seats, the party was not able to get the post of mayor or deputy mayor as it fell short on numbers in the electoral college.
The major blow to BJP's rivals Congress and the JD(S), which continue to have coalition in the BBMP council, was the disqualification of several of their MLAs by the then Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar earlier this year after their resignation.
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The five city MLAs among them - Munirathna, S T Somashekhar, Byrathi Basavaraj, K Gopalaiah and R Roshan Baig - could not vote.
In addition, Congress MP D K Suresh and Jairam Ramesh too could not make it to the crucial voting.
Talking to reporters, Gowtham Kumar said he would strive to live up to the expectations of the people of Bengaluru who honoured him with the post of Mayor.
Greeting Kumar on his victory, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said after four years, BJP succeeded in securing its position in BBMP.
The Chief Minister said he and the BJP state chief Nalin Kumar Kateel tried to defer the elections but the officials insisted that the calendar of events were fixed and hence the elections were inevitable.
"It is good that elections took place because the BJP succeeded in having its own Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Corruption was rampant in the BBMP and various investigations are in progress. Those involved in it should be punished, Yediyurappa told reporters in Mysuru.
He said the state government would extend all possible assistance to develop the city.
Soon after winning the election, celebration broke out at Kumar's residence with distribution of sweets.
However, there were protests too against his victory.
Pro-Kannada organisation Kannada Chalavali (Vatal Paksha) staged a protest in the city alleging that an 'outsider' has been made the city mayor.
Kumar, who is originally from Rajasthan, belongs to the Jain community.
There was opposition to Kumars election as Mayor inside the BJP.
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha vice-president Bhimashankar Patil tweeted that Yediyurappas wish to see a Kannadiga as the Mayor was set aside.
Kannadigas lost the opportunity to have a mayor among them because of the conspiracy of a few in Delhi who cannot even wear lungi properly, Patil tweeted.
Commenting on the allegations about his being outsider, Mayor Kumar said he was born in Siriguppa in Ballari district and has been living in Bengaluru for the past many years.
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