Bengaluru: Manjunath Narayana Reddy of the Congress today defeated BJP's Manjunath Raju in a close contest to become Bengaluru's new Mayor.
Congress' candidate defeated its BJP rival with just three votes.
The win for Congress was made possible by the alliance it had forged with Janata Dal Secular or JDS. The two parties were helped by the fact that apart from corporators, parliamentarians and lawmakers from the state also votes for the mayor.
The 260-member Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Council includes 62 other members from Bengaluru with voting rights. They include Members of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, MLAs and MLCs.
In the civic body elections held on August 22, BJP had won most seats, 100 wards out of 198 while Congress secured 76, JDS 14 and others eight.
The win was even celebrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who termed it a "hat-trick” as it came soon after wins for the BJP in civic elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
In the backdrop of the JDS deciding to join hands with the Congress for the mayoral polls, the BJP had filed a petition in Karnataka High Court, challenging Section 10 of Karnataka Municipal Act 1976, which allows both non-corporators and corporators to participate in the Mayoral poll.
The court had on Tuesday ordered that the result of the September 11 mayoral election would be subjected to the outcome of the petition.
However, the court had said it would keep aside the election of the mayor if the constitutionality of the participation of non-corporators was invalidated.
Police had imposed prohibitory orders on the premises of BBMP head office. Only members who had the right to vote were allowed to participate in the election process. No outsider or members of the public, except mediapersons, were allowed to enter the premises.
