Ballari Mayoral election postponed for ‘some reason’

Election to the post of Mayor of Ballari was postponed at the 11th hour due to unknown reasons. Civic body members, cutting across party lines, condemned the move and termed it as the handiwork of vested interests. The BJP staged a demonstration, claiming the Regional Commissioner misused his power. The election has been rescheduled for Dec. 19.

Election to the post of Mayor of Ballari, which was scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed at the 11th hour for unknown reasons. Members of the civic body, cutting across party lines, condemned the postponement of the election and termed it as the handiwork of vested interests.

D. Triveni, who served as Mayor for eight months, recently resigned from the post, necessitating the Mayoral polls.

The election was then scheduled for Tuesday.

BJP member Hanumantha Gudigante, Congress candidates V. Kubera and B. Shwetha and Independent candidate Srinivas Minchu filed their nomination papers in the morning on Tuesday.

Voting was to start by 12.30 p.m. However, Regional Commissioner (Kalaburagi) and Returning Officer Krishna Bajpai did not reach the election hall.

After waiting for over an hour, Additional Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Zuber, who received the nomination papers in the morning, suddenly announced that the election has been postponed for what he said “some reason”.

When enraged elected members of the civic body sought to know the reason for the postponement of the election, Mr. Zuber simply said that they will be notified later.