Defer mayoral polls in Kalaburagi: High court

Kalaburagi: The Kalaburagi bench of the Karnataka high court on Friday ordered the regional commissioner to postpone the election to the mayor’s post of the Kalaburagi City Corporation (KCC), scheduled on February 5, while asking the official to hold the polls within a month. In his order, Justice ES Indresh said, “The mayoral election must be held, and the reservation matrix originally issued for the mayor and deputy mayor’s posts must be abided to.The mayor’s post was reserved for a woman from the general category, while the deputy mayor is to be from an Other Backward Class (OBC) category. The regional commissioner must ensure that the old voters’ list, which does not contain the five MLCs included in the new list, is used for the mayoral polls.”
Five Congress corporators in the KCC had filed two separate writ petitions, one questioning the change in the reservation matrix, while the other challenged the inclusion of five MLCs in the new voters’ list.
The state government changed the reservation matrix for the top two posts in the KCC Council issued in November. Furthermore, the addition of five MLCs to the KCC Council’s voters’ list could have increases chances of BJP’s victory in the mayoral polls, but the high court has asked the administration to postpone the election, and revert to the original reservation matrix and voters’ list.