MANGALURU: Congress and SDPI have continued its alliance to achieve power at the Bantwal Town Municipal Council (TMC). Congress' B Vasu Poojary and SDPI's Monish Ali were elected as president and Vice-president respectively in the election held on Thursday.
In the 27-member house, Congress' tally had reduced to 11 after the resignation of Gangadhar who was elected on a Congress ticket. BJP has 11 and SDPI has four members. BJP had 13 votes in the election including that of MP Capt. Brijesh Chowta and Bantwal MLA Rajesh Naik U.
SDPI's Idris who had filed his nomination for the post of president, withdrew it later leading to the victory of Congress' Vasu Poojary. Congress had not fielded its candidate for the post of vice-president resulting in the shift of Congress votes to SDPI candidate Ali. Congress-SDPI combined got 15 votes in presidential and vice-president elections. Govinda Prabhu and Hariprasad who contested as BJP candidates for the post of president and vice-president managed to get 13 votes each.
Emerging out of the election, MP Brijesh Chowta slammed Congress for aligning with SDPI for the sake of power. He said by aligning with the SDPI which is the political wing of banned PFI, Congress has sent out a clear message to the society about whom it supports. By openly aligning with SDPI, the Congress has cheated the Bantwal people, he alleged.