BJP candidate Gowtham Kumar wins mayoral elections in Bengaluru

Speaking to reports, BJP leader R Ashok said that the party decided to support Gowtham Kumar as Bengaluru Mayor and asked Padmanabha Reddy to withdraw his nomination. 129 votes were in favour of BJP candidate, 112 for Congress candidate.

Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) head office held its mayoral elections along with polls for chairpersons of four standing committees. BJP's Gowtham Kumar has been declared as the Bengaluru mayor.

BBMP officials announced the schedule for the polls and said that the nominations would be accepted between 8am and 9:30am and the same will be verified by 11:30 am.

The voting for the post of mayor kick-started at 11:30 am, following which, the elections for the post of deputy mayor and chairpersons of standing committees of tax and finance, health, accounts, and the market took place.

The BJP-ruled state government fielded M Gowtham Kumar, a second-time BJP corporator from the Jogupalya ward (Ward 89) in Central Bengaluru as the mayor. Speaking to reports, BJP leader R Ashok said that the party decided to support Gowtham Kumar as Bengaluru Mayor and asked Padmanabha Reddy to withdraw his nomination.

Gowtham Kumar won with 129 votes while Congress candidate bagged 112.

BJP  MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar took to Twitter and said, "Today is elections for Mayor of #Bengaluru. For last 4 yrs @INCKarnataka n @JanataDal_S came tgthr to loot over 40,000crs of public money n trample citizens rights n voices. That stops tdy by electng a @BJP4Karnataka Mayor."

https://newsable.asianetnews.com/india/bjp-candidate-gowtham-kumar-wins-mayoral-elections-in-bengaluru-pyosgv

Gangamma Rajanna, Ram Mohan Raj, Gurumurthy Reddy and  Mahalakshmi are in the deputy mayor race, for which the elections are still on.

257 voters were present in the election including 198 council members, 23 MLAs, 22 MLCs, nine Rajya Sabha MPs and five Lok Sabha MPs residing in the city.

Currently, the BJP has 125, Congress with 104, JDS 21 and Independents 7.

According to reports, the total strength of the BBMP Council, including the corporators, MLAs and MLCs has reduced from 262 to 257, making 129 as its magic number.