Udupi, Jan 4: Upendra Nayak and Mamatha R Sehetty have been elected as president and vice president of Udupi Zilla Panchayat respectively.
In the election conducted for president and vice president at the Zilla Panchayat Hall here on Friday, Upendra Nayak and Mamatha R Shetty of BJP defeated Diwakar Kunder and Supreetha Shetty of Congress by 15 votes respectively.
The elections to these posts, originally scheduled to be held on October 4, 2012, were postponed owing to dissidence in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP has 16 members in the 25-member House. However, Sunitha Jayaram of BJP remained absent during the elections. The Congress has nine members.
But, a rebellion triggered by the non-inclusion of former Kundapur MLA Halady Srinivas Shetty in the State Cabinet, led to a vertical split among the BJP members of ZP, eight of whom were affiliated to Mr. Shetty. But neither the members of the official nor the rebel factions of the BJP turned up at the Zilla Panchayat meeting on October 4, in which the president and vice-president were to be elected. Only nine members of the Congress were present. Regional Commissioner M.V. Jayanti, who was overseeing the election, postponed the meeting to October 12, citing lack of quorum.
Although both the official and rebel BJP factions patched up by October 12, the Congress took the matter to the High Court challenging the decision of Ms. Jayanti to postpone the meeting. Hence, no meeting was held on October 12 as the matter reached the High Court. The Karnataka High Court delivered its judgment on the case on November 15, 2012, which both the Congress and the BJP interpreted it as a win.
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