Mangalore: Harish K of Moodushedde and Rajeevi Kempamannu were elected the President and Vice President respectively of Mangalore Taluk Panchayat on October 9, Tuesday. However, prior to the commencement of election process, there was some amount of confusion when BJP members failed to arrive on time.

MV Venkatesh, Assistant Commissioner, who was the election officer said as per rules the meeting can wait upto 30 minutes before which the abstaining members will have to arrive, though Congress members insisted that the elections be held in the absence of BJP members.

Finally, the BJP members arrived at the last minute. The BJP had filed two nominations-that of Harish K and Prakash Gaddikalpane with the latter later withdrawing the nomination. Harish K who secured 19 votes was elected President while Prakash Devaramane of Congress got 18 votes. Rajeevi Kempamannu of BJP was elected Vice President with 19 votes while her Congress counterpart Shashiprabha Kotian got 18 votes.

The new President Harish K, a man with an RSS background has the experience of serving as Moodushedde Gram Panchayat member for two terms. The Taluk Panchayat Vice President is a first time member and is an LIC agent.