Feb. 15: After indulging in a blame game over the tie-up between the Janata Dal (S) and BJP in the elections to the president and vice president posts in Mysore zilla panchayat, the Congress and JD(S) made a turnaround on Tuesday and struck an alliance to take control of Bengaluru urban zilla panchayat.

The BJP with 16 members in the 34-seat zilla panchayat, will have to sit on the Opposition benches. In a pointer to the intriguing tie-ups to seize power in the ZPs, the JD(S) had dumped the Congress and joined the BJP to seize power in Mysore ZP after power-sharing talks with the Congress failed. JD(S) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy sought to put the blame for this on veteran Congress leaders. “I would not blame Opposition leader Siddaramaiah. Mysore MP H. Vishwanath and Congress leader V. Srinivas Prasad spoiled the talks. We had requested the Congress to give us the Mysore ZP president’s post for the first 10 months of the 20-month term. Both of them refused. So our local leaders decided to go with the BJP,” Mr Kumaraswamy told DC.

He said that barring Mysore, the party had no problems in going with the Congress in other places. “We are committed to secular principles. That was why we managed to strike an understanding with the Congress in Bengaluru rural and urban zilla panchayat elections,” he said.

KPCC president, Dr G. Parameshwar termed the Mysore pact between the JD(S) and BJP as an aberration. “Due to some local problems, things went out of control. However, we will have to watch the JD(S) tactics. If they set a trend and go with the BJP again, we will change our strategy,” he said.

Referring to the situation in Koppal zilla panchayat which has 27 seats, he said the president’s post was reserved for a ST woman but neither the Congress nor JD(S) had ST women members. So the post went to BJP while the Congress got the vice-president’s post. “There was no secret understanding. The question of going with the BJP does not arise,” he asserted. The BJP had won 12 seats, the Congress 10 and the JD(S) 4 seats while one seat went to an independent.