Belagavi: The Marathi group candidates backed by the MES (Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi) grabbed both mayoral post for the fourth consecutive term of prestigious BCC (Belagavi City Corporation) council here on 1st March, Wednesday.
Elected as Mayor and Deputy Mayor were Sanjota Sunil Bandekar and Nagesh Ganpat Mandolkar, respective members of BDF (Belagavi Development Front) backed by the BCC.
According to the sources, due to the ongoing struggle for one-upmanship between two Jarkiholi brothers i.e. former minister Satish Jarkiholi and present SSI (Small Scale Industries) minister and district in-charge Ramesh Jarkiholi, this mayoral election had left the 26 members of Kannada-Urdu group divided ever since the latter replaced the former in last Cabinet reshuffle. While majority of the councilors (17) were identified with Mr. Ramesh, the rest of them were with Mr. Satish.
Even though the unseparated Kannada-Urdu group was not fulfilling the required numbers to wrest with Marathi group for the mayoral posts, the splitting up of the group broke the longstanding unity of their camp.
BDF candidate Ms. Sanjota Bandekar polled 32 votes in the polling to 58-member council and was elected Mayor while the Kannada-Urdu group candidates i.e. Jayashree Malgi and Pushpa Parvatrao polled 17 and 10 votes, respectively and were defeated.
Similarly, BDF candidate for Deputy Mayor, Mr. Nagesh Mandolkar was triumphant and won with 32 votes while Muzamil Doni and Fayeem Iqbal Naikwadi lost the poll with 17 and 10 votes respectively.
Ms. Malgi and Mr. Doni belonged to Mr. Ramesh’s group while Ms. Pushpa and Mr. Naikwadi belonged to the Satish-Sait group.