Mayor, Deputy Mayor elected for Mangaluru City Corpn
Mangaluru: The Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) has elected Manoj Kumar, representing the Derebail Ward, as the new Mayor and Banumathi from the Bolar Ward as Deputy Mayor.
The elections were held on Thursday and Kumar's election as Mayor was uncontested, as the position was reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate.
Kumar, the only candidate to file his nomination, represented the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Congress party did not field any candidates for the mayoral position as it lacked eligible members.
Regional Commissioner Ramesh officially declared Kumar as the Mayor.
For the post of Deputy Mayor, three candidates initially entered the race: Congress's Zeenat Shamshuddin, and BJP's Bhanumathi PS and Vanita Prasad.
Although all nominations were valid, Vanita Prasad later withdrew her candidacy.
In the final vote, Bhanumathi secured 47 votes from BJP members, while Zeenat Shamshuddin garnered support from 14 Congress members. One Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) member abstained from voting.
Bhanumathi was elected as Deputy Mayor.
The new leadership is expected to steer MCC's administration for the upcoming term with a focus on enhancing civic services and local development.
The new mayor and his deputy will be in power only for the next six months as the council's tenure will come to an end in March, 2025.
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Vinod Tawde seeks apology from Kharge, Rahul through legal notice, warns of defamation lawsuit
Cash-for-vote row
New Delhi, Nov 22: BJP leader Vinod Tawde has demanded an apology from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for making "false and baseless" allegations against him in the cash-for-votes incident in Maharashtra, saying if they don't he would sue them for defamation.
Tawde was accused by Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, a regional party, of distributing Rs 5 crore to woo voters, with its members barging into a hotel room on November 19 in a Mumbai suburb, where the BJP leader was present.
The former Maharashtra minister and BJP national general secretary claimed innocence, saying the alleged amount was not recovered in the probe by the Election Commission and police.
"The Congress only believes in spreading lies, and this incident is a proof of the party's low level politics to dent me and my party's image," Tawde said.
The two Congress leaders and the party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate seized on the row to accuse the BJP of using money power to influence the November 20 assembly polls in the state.
The legal notice sent to the three claimed that they were aware that they were pushing a "totally false story fabricated" by them.
"You all have deliberately, mischievously with the sole intention of damaging the reputation of our client intentionally fabricated the story distribution of money. You all have published false, baseless allegations against our client on various media for tarnishing his image in the eyes of right thinking people in the society," the notice read.
The Congress leaders were in a "great hurry" to damage Tawde's reputation, they did not bother to check the fact and or despite knowing the entire fact they made the false, baseless allegations, it said.
"The entire imputation made by you all are totally false, baseless, malicious and mala fide and as our client is in no way involved in any such illegal activity and as a responsible office bearer of the national political party he is aware of his duties," it added.
The notice demanded an "unconditional apology" to Tawde within 24 hours from the time the receipt of the notice, which was sent on November 21, and published in newspapers and X.
If they do not offer apology, then Tawde will initiate criminal proceedings under Section 356, which covers defamation, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and also civil proceedings for the damages of Rs 100 crore against the three Congress leaders, the notice said.
