Mysuru: With the Bharatiya Janata Party boycotting the elections in protest against the Janata Dal (Secular) dumping it for its coalition partner, the Congress, at the last moment in the Mysuru Zill Panchayat, Ms Parimala Shyam of the JD(S) was elected president and Ms Gowramma Somshekar of the Congress, vice president, unanimously on Saturday.
The BJP, which had a tie-up with the JD(S) in the last election to the Zilla Panchayat, staged a protest outside the conference hall of the regional commissioner, where the elections were held.
While the JD(S) had announced earlier in the day on Friday that it was going with the BJP in the Mysuru Zilla Panchayat poll, it changed its mind following a meeting of Congress leaders with party patriarch, H D Deve Gowda. Minister Sa Ra Mahesh declared late in the evening that the party had decided to support the Congress in the local body poll. The Congress offered the president’s post to the JD(S) and decided to be content with the vice president’s reportedly to make sure former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah did not have to eat humble pie in his hometown of Mysuru.
For the BJP , the decision came as a bolt from the blue as following a meeting between JD(S) leader Sa Ra Mahesh and its party MP, Pratap Simha Friday morning, the minister had announced the two parties were continuing their alliance in the Mysuru ZP. He had explained that the tie-up with the BJP was entered into before the party formed a coalition government with the Congress in the state and it had discussed the issue with the latter before arriving at the decision. But some hours later he was singing a different tune.
