Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Nov 20: In the election held for the 33 membership slots in five standing committees of the zilla panchayat on Tuesday November 19, the BJP bagged 32 seats, conceding only one seat to the opposition Congress.

In the past, memberships of standing committees were decided by way of discussions and consultations with leaders and zilla panchayat members. This time however, election was necessitated as both the BJP and the Congress stuck to their demand for a specific number of seats.

Before the election was held, mediation was held during which the Congress vehemently stuck to its demand for 12 seats whereas the BJP offered 11 seats. Finally, election was held and the Congress had to be content with a lone seat.

In the zilla panchayat, BJP has 21 members as against 15 of the Congress. MLAs, Vedavyas Kamath, Dr Bharath Shetty, S Angara, Umanath Kotian and Rajesh Naik took part in the polling.

Zilla panchayat president, Meenakshi Shanthigodu and vice president, Kasturi Panja, were present. Chief executive officer of the zilla panchayat, Dr R Selvamani, oversaw the election process.