Manoj Kumar Kodikal Unopposedly Elected as Mayor of Mangaluru
Mangaluru: Manoj Kumar Kodikal, a ward member from Mangalore’s North Constituency (Ward No. 17), has been unanimously elected as the Mayor of Mangalore City Corporation for the upcoming term. Bhanumathi P.S., a member from South Constituency (Ward No. 58), has been elected as the Deputy Mayor.
The election for Mayor and Deputy Mayor was held at the Mangalore City Corporation on Thursday. With no opposition from the Congress party due to reserved seat allocation, Manoj Kumar Kodikal was elected unopposed.
The current BJP-led administration will continue until February 27 next year, resulting in a tenure of approximately five and a half months for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
Regional Commissioner Ramesh D.S. oversaw the election process at the corporation’s Mangala hall.
The BJP holds 44 seats, Congress 14, and SDPI 2 in the corporation. 65 members, including MPs and MLAs, were eligible to vote in the election.
MP Brijesh Chouta, MLAs Vedavyas Kamath and Dr. Bharath Shetty were present, while MLCs Manjunath Bhandari and Ivan D’Souza did not participate in the election process. Additional Deputy Commissioner Dr. Santhosh Kumar and Corporation Commissioner Anand were also present.
The election process began at 12:00 PM, with 61 voters confirmed by the election officer due to the absence of two Congress MLAs and SDPI members Sanshad Abu Bakkar and Muneer Bengre at the time. However, Sanshad Abu Bakkar arrived at 12:11 PM and cast his vote during the deputy mayor election when neutral members were considered.
For the Deputy Mayor position, Bhanumathi from the ruling BJP submitted two sets of nomination papers. Vanitha Prasad from BJP and Zainath Samsuddin from Congress also submitted nominations. However, one of Bhanumathi’s nominations was rejected due to incomplete caste documentation, and Vanitha Prasad withdrew her nomination.
The election proceeded between Bhanumathi (BJP) and Zainath Samsuddin (Congress), with 47 votes cast for Bhanumathi and 14 for Zainath. Mysuru Regional Commissioner Ramesh declared Bhanumathi the Deputy Mayor.
Additionally, four standing committees were elected unopposed.