BENGALURU: Three days after the BBMP election results were announced, a high-voltage political drama gripped the city on Friday with top leaders from all the three political parties, the BJP, Congress and JD(S), holding a series of meetings to grab power in the BBMP.
The Congress, determined to stop the BJP from getting the Mayor’s post, has sounded out the JD(S) for an alliance, spooking the BJP, which till now thought it had a comfortable majority with 100 seats. At least five of the eight independent corporators, who could play a crucial role if it comes to the crunch, have been spirited away and taken to resorts on the outskirts of the city, sources said. But no one was sure whether it was the handiwork of the JD(S) or the Congress.
The BJP with all its corportators, MLAs, MLCs and MPs has 126 votes to elect a mayor, falling just one short of the magic number. The Congress-JD(S) alliance along with the independents will have 129.
The drama started unfolding on Thursday night when some of the independent corporators were summoned to Home Minister K.J. George’s residence. They were later taken to KR Puram MLA Byrati Basavaraj (Congress). The independents were asked about extending support to the Congress-JD(S) alliance to form the BBMP council. Speculation is rife that the independents are being lured with plum posts in various standing committees of the BBMP.
The BJP, which was confident of forming the BBMP council for the second consecutive term and was waiting for the notification to be issued by the government for a mayoral candidate, was caught off guard on Friday. The party held a series of meetings throughout the day. After the Core Committee meeting late in the night, the leaders decided that they would approach JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda for support.
Mr D.U. Mallikarjun who became an MLC with the help of BJP and JD (S), has been assigned the task of holding a meeting with Mr Gowda on Saturday. Mr Mallikarjun met Mr Kumaraswamy on behalf of the BJP. “Efforts were on to pacify the JD (S). Mr Kumaraswamy is angry that BJP leaders had alleged that the JD (S) had fuelled the Kalasa-Banduri agitation,” Mr Mallikarjun said.
