The JD(S) will play the role of kingmaker in the election to the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) scheduled for Wednesday.
The hung 65-member MCC has 22 members from the BJP, 19 from the Congress and 18 from the JD(S), besides one BSP member and five Independents. BJP MP Pratap Simha and MLAs S.A. Ramdas and L. Nagendra, JD(S) MLA G.T. Deve Gowda and MLCs Srikante Gowda and Marithibbe Gowda, besides Congress’ Tanveer Sait and R. Dharmasena have voting rights in the mayoral polls.
The post of Mayor has been reserved for a woman from the general category while the post of Deputy Mayor has been set aside for general category.
Though the Congress and the JD(S) had entered into a partnership after the MCC polls in 2018, the alliance had come under a strain. Meanwhile, the BJP has begun wooing the JD(S) in the hope of having the saffron party’s first Mayor of Mysuru.
Former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, who was in Mysuru on Tuesday, regretted that former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was speaking lightly about their party and referred to the Congress leader’s recent statement that he did not consider the JD(S) a political party at all.
Mr. Kumaraswamy said no State-level Congress leader had approached him for an alliance with the JD(S). But, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa had spoken to him over phone and sought an alliance in the MCC. Though Mr. Yediyurappa had sought the post of Mayor for the BJP, Mr. Kumaraswamy said the party had not given its response to the saffron party yet.
Mr. Kumaraswamy also expressed his displeasure over Mr. Siddaramaiah repeatedly insulting the JD(S) publicly and sought to know how the party can align with Congress.
Meanwhile, JD(S) leader Abdullah, who was the party’s candidate for Narasimharaja Assembly constituency in the last elections, said the five corporators of the JD(S) belonging to minority community were not in favour of the party aligning with the BJP in the mayoral polls.
Though he was thankful for the party to have made its corporator Shafi Ahmed as Deputy Mayor in the first term and Tasneem as the Mayor in the second term, he said the party feared that an alliance with the BJP will hit the party’s electoral prospects in minority-dominated areas. However, Mr. Abdullah said the corporators will abide by the decision Mr. Kumaraswamy takes.