Congress-JD(S) to battle it out with BJP for BBMP bypolls

BENGALURU: Congress and JD(S) will field its coalition candidates for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) by-elections to be held on May 29 for Kaveripura and Sagayapura wards.

The wards have been vacant after the deaths of Deputy Mayor Ramila Umashankar from Kaveripura ward in October 2018 and corporator Elumalai from Sagayapura ward in December. While Ramila was from JD(S), Elumalai was an independent councillor.

In 2018 too, Congress and JD(S) fielded coalition candidates for the Assembly bypolls in Jamakandi and Ramanagara and for the Parliamentary bypolls in Mandya, Shivamogga and Ballari. “JD(S) will field its candidate in Kaveripura ward while Congress will field its candidate in Sagayapura ward and we will support each other,” said T A Saravana, JD(S) MLC.

R Prakash, JD(S) president for Bengaluru City said they are finalising the candidates in a day or two. “We are going to win for sure,” he added.BJP, on the other side, is fielding its candidates in both the wards. “They (Congress and JD-S) cannot defeat us. The Lok Sabha election results on May 23 will give the exact picture. We are going to win at both the places,” said Padmanabha Reddy, opposition party leader in BBMP and a senior BJP leader. In the BBMP council, BJP had won 100 seats while Congress won 76 and JD(S) 15. However, seven independents lend their support to bring the Congress-JD(S) alliance in power.