Diwakar Pandeshwar elected new mayor of Mangaluru

Diwakar Pandeshwar, BJP Corporator from Cantonment ward, was on Friday elected new Mayor of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC). Vedavathi, Corporator from Kulai, was elected the Deputy Mayor. The mayoral election was held at the MCC conference hall. All the 60 corporators, two MLAs Vedavyasa Kamath and Bharath Y Shetty and Ivan D'Souza, MLC, cast their vote in the election, while Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, did not turn up. The standing committee members for various departments were also elected.

The Congress had put up candidates for both the posts. Keshava who was fielded for the Mayor's post got 15 votes including the MLC vote. Deputy Mayor candidate Zeenath Shamshuddin, who was supported by SDPI's two members, secured 17 votes, while both the BJP candidates got 46 votes including the votes of their two MLAs. In the November 12 elections to the 60-member Corporation council, BJP had won 44 seats, while the Congress got only 14. SDPI members were elected from two wards.