New Belagavi Mayor, Deputy Mayor to be chosen today

The new Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Belagavi will be chosen on Wednesday. BJP is sure to win both the posts as it enjoys a majority in the City Corporation Council.

While the Mayor’s post is reserved for a woman from the general category, the post of the Deputy Mayor is open for competition.

The BJP has issued a whip to all its members to be present on Wednesday. It is speculated that the elections will be unanimous.

The 2021 Belagavi City Corporation polls were the first in several decades where candidates fought on party lines.

Since the 1960s, the erstwhile Belagavi Municipal Council and then, the municipal corporation and city corporation elections were fought on the lines of language affiliation.

The House then would have members clubbed into Kannada, Marathi and Urdu groups.

The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) that dominated politics in the city for nearly five decades used to decide who would be the Mayor. But that changed once various parties issued ticket to nominees in 2021.

Now, the 58-member House has 35 BJP members, 10 Congress, one AIMIM and 12 others, including MES and Independents.

BJP leaders in this multi-lingual town are working hard to get the caste and language matrix right in this Mayoral poll.

The outgoing Mayor Mangesh Pawar is a Marathi from the general category, while Deputy Mayor Vani Vilas Joshi is a Kannadiga elected to the post reserved for a woman from the general category.

BJP sources say that the incoming Mayor is likely to be a Kannadiga while the Deputy Mayor can be a Marathi.

The BJP is also busy managing caste equations.

In the first term, it chose Mr. Pawar, a Maratha, to be the Mayor and Ms. Joshi, a Brahmin, to be the Deputy Mayor.

There have been demands from various groups that their community leaders be nominated.

The Jedar Dasimayya youth association has demanded that a member from the Nekar community be chosen for the post of Mayor.

Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha leader Basavaraj Rotti has demanded that a Lingayat be elected the Mayor.

Sources say that the party leadership is likely to choose a member from the Nekar (weaver) community for the post of the Mayor and an OBC leader for the Deputy Mayor post. The House has at least three women from the Nekar community.

The sources say that one of the posts will go to a corporation member from the Belagavi North Assembly Constituency and the other will be from the Belagavi South seat.

Both Mr. Pawar and Ms. Joshi are from the Belagavi South Constituency, represented by MLA Abhay Patil who has claimed credit for the party getting 35 out of the 58 seats in corporation.

As per party sources, there are several women aspirants for the post of Mayor. They include Preeti Kamkar, Netravati Bhagwat, Reshma Kamkar, Deepali Topagi, Savita Patil, Roopa Chikkaldinni and Veena Vijaypure.

Aspirants for the post of Deputy Mayor include Santosh Pednekar, Raju Bhatkhande, Hanumant Kongali, Nitin Jadhav and Shreyas Nakadi.

BJP leaders have already held a series of meetings with corporation members, party leaders and some Sangh Parivar leaders to arrive at a final decision on candidates.

The former MLA and Maratha community leader Anil Benake and others participated.