High Court of Karnataka in Kalaburagi that heard two petitions related to the elections to the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Kalaburagi City Corporation on Thursday adjourned hearing to Friday.
Congress corporators of the civic body have approached court with two petitions — one challenging the efforts of the BJP, which did not have a majority in the civic body, to capture Mayoral positions by including its seven Members of Legislative Council from other districts in the electoral roll of Gulbarga South Assembly Constituency thereby making them members of the civic body so that they could vote in Mayoral elections and the other on change in reservation for the Mayor post from Scheduled Tribes to General Woman and then to Scheduled Castes.
A Bench headed by Justice E.S. Indresh clubbed and heard the petitions in the virtual mode, as they were inter-related and pertaining to the same matter.
Advocate Gourishankar, who appeared for the MLCs who have applied for inclusion of their names in the electoral roll of Gulbarga South Assembly Constituency, and Advocate-General Prabhuling Navadgi sought time to respond to the petitions.
Senior counsel Ponnanna and S.M. Chandrashekhar, who appeared for the petitioners, raised objections saying that the elections to the Mayoral posts were scheduled for Saturday and appealed to the court to make a decision at the earliest possible. Considering the urgency, the court adjourned the cases for a day.
The elections held to 55 wards of the city corporation in the first week of September last year had thrown up a hung House. The Congress emerged as the single largest party with 27 seats followed by the BJP with 23 seats and the Janata Dal (Secular) with four seats. With one MLA and one Rajya Sabha member, the Congress’ strength on the floor of the House is 29. The BJP also matched the Congress tally with three MLCs, two MLAs and a Lok Sabha member.
Meanwhile, seven BJP Members of Legislative Council — Lakshman Savadi (Athani), Tulsi Muniraju Gowda (Bengaluru), Pratap Simha Naik (Ujire), Lehar Singh (Bengaluru), Bharati Shetty (Bengaluru), Sabanna Talawar (Belagavi) and Raghunathrao Malkapure (Bidar) — applied for getting their names included in the electoral rolls of Gulbarga South Assembly Constituency so that they can become members of the civic body and cast their votes in the Mayoral elections.
The Regional Commissioner recently postponed the Mayoral elections to February 5, 2022 and released the revised list of electors eligible for casting their votes in the elections. In the revised roll, the number of electors was increased from 63 to 68 after the five MLCs (Lakshman Savadi, Tulsi Muniraju Gowda, Lehar Singh, Bharati Shetty and Raghunathrao Malkapure) were included in the electoral rolls of Gulbarga South Assembly Constituency.
The Mayor post was originally reserved for Scheduled Tribes candidates. Subsequently, it was changed to General Women and then to Scheduled Castes candidate. Challenging the change in reservation, Yallappa Naikode, the only Scheduled Tribes candidate in the civic body, has gone to court.
