Yuvaraj, Amrutha Krishnamurthy made president, VP of Udupi CMC
Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SM)
Udupi, Sep 12: Six months after the local body elections to Udupi city municipal council (CMC), the post of president and vice-president have finally been filled.
On Thursday September 12, Yuvaraj of Subramanyanagar ward was chosen president and Amrutha Krishnamurthy of Kinnimulky was elected vice-president of CMC. Both are from Congress.
The elections were held in March this year. Congress had bagged 22 out of the 35 seats, while 12 went to BJP.
Though the elections to the local bodies were conducted in March, the reservations for the top posts were announced later, on August 25.
As per the government directive, the post of the CMC president was reserved for a candidate from SC, and that for vice-president was reserved for a woman from general category.
A stay order on the reservation for the top posts, issued by the high court, had stated that the order was applicable only to those corporations that had appealed against the earlier verdict. The stay order issued on Friday stated that the order does not apply if the election timetable is already published, as in the case of Udupi CMC.
As many as 10 women councilors from Congress were in the race for the vice-president's post.
Yuvaraj had defeated Narayana of BJP in the local body elections. He had earlier lost to a BJP candidate in 2007 elections. Amrutha had defeated Devadas Shettigar of BJP in the ULB polls.
Out of 35 councilors, 33 were present. Mahesh Thakur and Vijay Kundar of BJP were absent. Kundapur assistant commissioner Yogishwar was the election officer.
Addressing the gathering on the occasion, MLA Pramod Madhwaraj said that after 45 years, people of Udupi chose Congress as the ruling party. "Hence, keeping their high expectations in mind, Congress will undertake all the development work as promised in the manifesto," he said.
"Congress is in power at the center, state and CMC; with our united efforts, we will provide good administration in the district," he promised.
"Congress will give transparent and corruption-free administration. Constructive criticism from opposition is always welcome," he added.
Yuvaraj and Amrutha Krishnamurthy thanked all the council members and requested their coordination and support.
M R Pai of BJP was selected as the opposition leader.
Deputy commissioner Dr M T Reju was present.