BJP bags vice-president’s post in Kaup Town Municipal Council

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had a majority in the Kaup Town Municipal Council but did not have a Scheduled Castes candidate for the vice-president’s post, managed to get that post too with an SC councillor from the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) switching to its side on Wednesday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had a majority in the Kaup Town Municipal Council but did not have a Scheduled Castes candidate for the vice-president’s post, managed to get that post too with an SC councillor from the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) switching to its side on Wednesday.

While the BJP had 12 councillors, the Congress had seven, the SDPI three, and the Janata Dal (Secular) had one councillor in the Kaup TMC. The president’s post was reserved for women (general) and the vice-president’s for women (SC).

The BJP did not have an SC woman councillor. On Wednesday, Kaup MLA Gurme Suresh Shetty announced that SDPI supported councillor Saritha and her husband Shivanand joined the BJP.

Later, during the elections held at the TMC, Harinakshi was elected the president and Saritha as the vice-president of the council.

Kaup (South) Block Congress general secretary Ameer Kaup said the BJP resorted to horse trading even in the TMC election. He said: “The SDPI tried to mislead people by stating that it was supporting the Congress in the election. However when Ms. Saritha went incommunicado for the last two days, it did not try to approach her. Though we had the eligible candidate (SC) for the vice-president’s post, the BJP played a trick and bagged the post.”