Change in reservation upsets the applecart

DHARWAD: The sudden change in the reservation for the post of deputy mayor in Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation has upset powerful aspirants to the post.The post of deputy mayor as per the earlier notification was reserved for SC (woman) and since there was no woman candidate belonging to scheduled caste in the ruling BJP efforts were made to get it changed to OBC-B (Woman) to avoid the post going to a Congress member and facilitate a BJP member occupy the position.
Bharati Patil of Dharwad and Vijayalaxmi Hoskoti of Hubli are two BJP candidates belonging to OBC-B category. Since Bharati has already been a deputy mayor once and is an aspirant for the mayor's post it is almost sure that Vijaylaxmi will be deputy mayor.What is interesting is the change of reservation for deputy mayor's post has had its ramification on the election of the mayor.
As per the convention, the post of mayor is held by corporators from Hubli for three terms and by corporators from Dharwad for two terms. With Hubli getting the post for three terms, now it is the turn of Dharwad to get the mayor's post. However, members from Hubli are pressing for one more term for them.Vijayalaxmi's election as deputy mayor is likely to foil the chances of three aspirants for the mayor's post - Pandurang Patil, Ajjappa Bendigeri and Bharati Patil. Vijayalaxmi and Pandurang got elected on JD(U) ticket and joined BJP later and it is not likely that both the posts will be given to new entrants to the party.
CASTE MATTERS
Vijayalaxmi is a Lingayat and hence Ajjappa Bendigeri, who is also a Lingayat may not get the post. Similarly, Bharati Patil will find a stumbling block in Vijayalaxmi as members will not agree for both the posts going to women. Sudhir Saraf and Hoovappa Dayagodi from Hubli are two other aspirants. If the BJP leadership yields to pressure from Hubli lobby, then Sudhir Saraf has a fair chance of getting the post as he enjoys the confidence of leaders.
HUBLI v/s DHARWAD
Meanwhile, corporators from Dharwad are unanimous in their plea that the post should be given to Dharwad. At a meeting held recently BJP MLAs Chandrakant Bellad and Seema Masuti and all BJP corporators demanded that a corporator from Dharwad should be made the Mayor.Since the post is reserved for general category all the corporators are eligible to contest.Prakash Godbole, Shivu Hiremath, Bharati Patil, Ashok Nidavani and Sanjay Kapatkar who are aspiring for the post said they would be happy if any one of them got the post.The elections are likely to be held in the last week of March. The term of present mayor Poorna Patil comes to an end this month.