Udupi : The Udupi Zilla Panchayat President and Vice President were elected in elections held on January 4, Friday. Upendra Nayak and Mamata R Shetty, both of BJP, were elected the new President and Vice-President  respectively. The winners were declared by Regional Election Commissioner MV Jayanthi. The BJP candidates secured 15 votes with one ruling party member abstaining. The Congress has nine members in the House.

The Congress had fielded Diwaker Kunder and Supreetha Deepak Shetty for the two  posts.

Udaykumar Shetty, District BJP President and others congratulated the winners. If the post of ZP chief was reserved for a general category candidate, the vice president’s post was reserved for a Backward class ‘B’ woman candidate.

The elections were held  after a long time gap after the October 4 elections could not be held for want of quorum. Most BJP members had then abstained after there were differences with some members supporting Halady Srinivas Shetty, former MLA.

Though, elections were to be held at a later date, it could not take place after Congress members approached the High Court. The Court in its ruling in November had directed that elections be held to the ZP president’s post.

Speaking to reporters after being elected, Upendra Nayak the ZP has the obligation of taking up developmental programmes worth Rs 309 crore by this financial year end and promised to  do the needful in that direction. He blamed Congress for the delay in elections.