A shrewd political strategy by the district Congress leadership helped the party establish its hold over the 45-member Belagavi Taluk Panchayat, with its candidates Patil Shankargouda Gangappa and Maruti Bharam Sanadi being elected as president and vice-president, respectively.
They secured 22 votes each when the elections were held on Tuesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had allegedly reached an understanding with the Independent candidates affiliated to the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), when the election was earlier scheduled for May 10. The election was postponed for want of quorum just before the scrutiny of nomination papers was to be taken up.
In the meantime, a group of Congress workers allegedly kidnapped BJP candidate Peeraji Kallappa Yellurkar right in front of police officials deputed for election duty on the premises of the taluk panchayat. A case of kidnap was later registered with the Khade Bazaar Police Station.
As the election process resumed on Tuesday, the Congress ensured that the understanding between the MES and the Bharatiya Janata Party was short-lived.
As a result, both the BJP and the Independent candidates remained in the fray. The BJP candidates for the posts of president and vice-president, Sampagavi Kallappa Baswant and Peeraji Kallappa Yellurkar, polled eight votes each while Independents Patil Raoji Mahadev and Appasaheb Machandarnath Keertane secured 14 votes each, respectively. Mr. Peeraji was absent as the police could not trace him.
If the BJP-MES alliance had been intact and Mr. Peeraji was traced, the combination would have fetched 23 votes.
