Suspense continues over the stand of JD(S) in the mid-term Mayoral polls scheduled for August 25.
With its support crucial for any party to clinch the post of Mayor in the hung Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), the BJP as well as Congress have reached out to it for an understanding.
The BJP has 22 members while the Congress has 19 members in the House. The JD(S) has 17 members while BSP has one member. Five others are independents. Apart from the 65 members of MCC, Mysuru MP Pratap Simha belonging to the BJP, four MLAs – S. A. Ramdas and L. Nagendra (both BJP), Tanveer Sait (Cong) and G.T. Deve Gowda (JD-S), besides three MLCs – Marithibbe Gowda, Srikante Gowda and Sandesh Nagaraj (all JD-S) – have voting rights.
While Minister for Cooperation S.T. Somashekar, who is also the Minister in charge of Mysuru district, called on former Minister and JD(S) MLA representing K.R. Nagar S.R. Mahesh and sought the party’s support to help elect a BJP Mayor, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Working President R. Dhruvanarayan spoke to Mr. Mahesh over the telephone and sought continuation of the understanding between the two ‘secular’ parties.
Mr. Mahesh has kept the BJP as well as the Congress waiting. Mr. Dhruvanarayan told reporters in Mysuru on Monday that the Congress had sought the Mayor’s post, which is scheduled to end in six months’ time, while the JD(S) can take the top post for the remaining two terms. Though Mr. Dhruvanarayan called Mr. Mahesh on Sunday, the latter did not receive the call.
JD(S) leader K.T. Srikante Gowda told The Hindu that the party will take a decision at a meeting of the party corporators scheduled for Tuesday.
Sources in the JD(S) said there is a split among the party corporators with a section preferring the BJP while another wishing to go with Congress. The corporators belonging to the Muslim community are wary of an understanding with the BJP as it would seriously impact their re-election. But, another section has argued that the JD(S) has supported secular values and stood by the minorities and their truck with BJP will not affect their re-election chances.
The terms of understanding with the BJP are yet to be worked out. However, a BJP leader said party is unlikely to accept the offer JD(S) has received from Congress. “If they ask us to take the Mayor’s post for six months and allow JD(S) the occupy the post for the remaining two years, it may not be acceptable”, the BJP leader said.
The mid-term polls to the post of Mayor were announced after Ms. Rukmini Made Gowda of the JD(S) was disqualified from the membership of the MCC for submitting a false asset affidavit.