Belagavi: The elections for the mayor and deputy mayor posts in the Belagavi City Corporation (BCC) will be held on March 1. Regional Commissioner P A Meghannavar announced the time table of the elections on February 15.
The regional commissioner will preside over the special meeting to be held on March 1 at the Council Hall of the Belagavi City Corporation. The mayor and deputy mayor for the term from 1 March 2018 to 28 February 2019, will be elected. This time the the mayor’s post is reserved for Scheduled Tribes while the deputy mayor’s post is for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) ‘A’ women category.
The interesting factor this time is the ruling party in the BCC, which has a majority in house, has not a single candidate from these categories for either the mayor or the deputy mayor’s post. Thus, the candidates from the opposition party will become the mayor and deputy mayor this time.
The Belagavi City Corporation is known for its linguistic politics. Elections contested here are on the basis of mother tongue and not on any party or community. Marathi linguistic councilors who are identified in the ruling group enjoyed the mayor and deputy mayor posts in past four terms.
Now, the Kannada and Urdu councilors from opposition parties will get a chance to enjoy the mayoral posts for at least one year.
