BENGALURU: The plans of both the mayor and an ex-mayor to enter Vidhana Soudha could not materialise this assembly election. While mayor Sampath Raj lost to BJP’s S Raghu by 12,314 votes in C V Raman Nagar, MLA S Suresh Kumar of BJP defeated ex-mayor G Padmavathi by 9,453 votes in Rajajinagar. Padmavathi was leading in a few rounds but Suresh Kumar had the last laugh.
This election also did not prove lucky for two former deputy mayors.
Vasudeva Murthy, a former deputy mayor and former councillor from Shanthala Nagar, lost to N A Haris in Shantinagar. In 2013, he had contested on JD(S) ticket with the then mayor D Venkatesh Murthy from BJP also in the fray, but both tasted defeat at the hands of Haris.
In Chamarajpet, former deputy mayor M Lakshminarayana contested against Zameer Ahmed but could not get much votes. In Vijayanagar, former councillor H Ravindra was fielded against two-time MLA and minister M Krishnappa of Congress. Though Ravindra gave a tough fight to Krishnappa, he lost by about 2,000 votes.
In Chickpet, the only councillor from SDPI (Siddapura ward)—Mujahid Pasha contested the assembly election against Uday Garudachar and R V Devaraj of Congress. But he too failed to win. In 2013, Byrathi Basavaraj and Munirathna, who were BBMP councillors then, had won the assembly elections with huge margins.