Bengaluru: BJP corporator from Jogupalya M Gautham Kumar Jain has been elected the 54th mayor of Bengaluru. He trounced R Satyanarayana from the Congress to adorn the top elected post in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bengaluru’s local civic body.

Kumar, a second-time corporator from Jogupalya secured 129 votes. Sathyanarayana got 110 votes.

Raju, on the other hand, secured a total of 129 votes against JD(S) candidate Ganagamma, who secured 108 votes.

Gautham Kumar Jain and Padmanabha Reddy had filed nomination from the BJP, but Reddy withdrew his nomination later. As many as 101 corporators, 11 MLAs, 7 MLCs, 4 Lok Sabha MPs, and 2 Rajya Sabha MPs constitute 125 votes for the BJP side while the same is 123 for the Congress-JD(S) coalition, after two JD(S) corporators walked away from the council hall.

Nirmala Sitharaman – Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka (BJP); Jairam Ramesh – Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka (Congress) and DK Suresh – Lok Sabha MP from Bangalore Rural (Congress) missed the BBMP elections. Meanwhile, JD(S) members Manjula and Devadas refrained from casting vote. This helped the BJP in a big way, say many. However, it told that the two have been in touch with BJP’s trouble-shooter R Ashok way before the BBMP elections. All efforts of the JDS leaders to pacify the two and to even stall the elections met failure.

It may be recalled that confusions surrounded the election as Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa himself had said that the elections will be postponed, but Regional Commissioner Harsha Gupta went ahead and continued the election on the scheduled date. Following this, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel called a meeting late on Monday evening to finalise the candidate. The city police commissioner ordered prohibitory orders under Section 144 around the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) headquarters on Tuesday — first time ever.