Mayor election was conducted against legal norms: BJP

Mangalore, March 7: The MCC Mayoral elections which saw the majority BJP's candidate being disqualified resulting in a Congress win, were conducted against the norms of election laws, alleged Monappa Bhandary, Spokesperson, DK District BJP.

Addressing media persons at a press meet held at the party office in Mangalore on Wednesday, Mr. Bhandary accused Ms. M V Jayanthi, the returning officer who conducted the electoral proceedings earlier today, of not following the right procedure and laws. “She has not followed the law and gone about her own wish. She has succumbed to outside pressure and acted irresponsibly. Nowhere does the law say that the returning officer should not accept a candidate's caste certificate if it is submitted at the time of scrutiny”, he said.

Arguing that the nomination format that was used itself was “illegal”, Mr. Bhandary said that the party had not committed any blunder and it was the returning officer who was at fault.

Mr. Bhandary said that in 2005, in connection with a presidential election for a local institution, local officers had sought a response from the Election Commission whether caste certificate could be accepted at the time of scrutiny, to which the Commission had responded in the affirmative.

To a query from media persons as to why the BJP had taken so long to file its nomination caste certificate, Mr. Bhandary said “What's the big deal if we submitted it at the time of scrutiny? Even in Lok Sabha elections, there have been instances in the past where certificates have been submitted at the time of scrutiny.” He also stated that the BJP did not push forward a dummy candidate as they were confident of the nominated candidate seeing it through. “Our documents were up to date. Who had thought that she (returning officer) would reject the nomination?” he said.

When asked as to why the party had filed the nomination in the first place if it knew that the format itself was illegal, Mr. Bhandary said that only after the disqualification did the BJP look for loopholes in the nomination process and found out the 'illegality' of the format.

Mr. Bhandary said that the party would decide its future course of action in a day or two after consultation with party elders.

Ms. Gulzar Banu of Congress was elected Mayor of Mangalore after BJP's candidate Roopa D Bangera's nomination was cancelled by the returning officer earlier in the day.