Gulzar Banu

Gulzar Banu (born 1963) is an Indian politician and incumbent Mayor of the Mangalore City Corporation, India. A member of the Indian National Congress (INC), Banu is the sixth woman to hold the position of Mayor. She has studied until class 10 in the school, BEM SCHOOL MANGALORE, and married Shamsuddin. They couple have ten children. Prior to becoming Mayor, Banu was a corporator from the Katipalla ward, having been elected twice into the position. Banu won the 2012 mayoral election after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Roopa Bangera, was disqualified due to a failure to properly submit her caste certificate in the prescribed format within the given time, and that the certificate subsequently submitted by her was past the time stipulated for filing the nomination. As a result, Banu became the only running candidate and was hence declared elected by default. This incident came as a shock to many, since the BJP nominee was widely considered to be most likely to win. Due to the absence of any provision in the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, to call for a no-confidence motion, Banu will serve as Mayor for the proscribed term from 7 March 2012 to 20 February 2013. She took office on 7 March 2012, with BJP politician Amitakala as Deputy Mayor.