Now, Congress Resorts to Resort Politics, Sends Flock to Madikeri

BENGALURU:  Fearing poaching by the BJP ahead of the crucial elections to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor, the Congress on Monday packed off its corporators to a resort in Madikeri in Kodagu district.

Fourteen JD(S) and seven independent corporators who have aligned with the Congress to grab power at the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) are already camping in different resorts in Kerala.

All the corporators will return to the city on Friday, the day the mayoral election is scheduled to be held.

“The BJP can do anything for power, including poaching our corporators. To prevent  this, we are taking the corporators to a resort,” said KPCC president G Parameshwara.

Before they left for Madikeri in three buses, all corporators were given a list of dos and don’ts for the next four days by Parameshwara and other leaders.

“Don’t take calls from strangers or BJP leaders. All will be under watch and strict action will be taken if anyone is found hobnobbing over phone,” the corpoarotrs were warned.

HDK Pledges Support for Five Years JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy on Monday reiterated his party’s unconditional support to the Congress in the BBMP.

“We will give unconditional support for full five years. The only thing we expect in return is the best use of our support for the development of the IT city,” Kumaraswamy told reporters here.

To a question, he said he had spoken to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Parameshwara over phone with regard to the alliance and that if necessary he would meet them in person.

Parameshwara said, “Since the JD(S) has given unconditional support, there is no need to have a one-on-one meeting.”

Throughout the day, there were hectic parleys over the alliance. Parameshwara and Energy Minister D K Shivakumar met Siddaramaiah at his home office Krishna and discussed the party’s strategy.

Later, JD(S) leaders H D Revanna and YSV Datta met the chief minister. Going by the statements of Kumaraswamy and Parameshwara that there is no need for a meeting between the first line leaders of both the parties, it is unlikely that they will meet.

The reluctance to meet by both the sides has given credence to the buzz that the alliance has been brokered by the second line leaders of both parties keeping their personal political future in mind.

BJP Petitions SEC

The BJP continued its efforts to prevent non-BBMP members from voting in the mayoral election.

They petitioned the State Election Commission seeking deletion of names of Congress MLCs V S Ugrappa, Raghu Achar and M Srinivas from the voters’ list  as they are the registered voters in their respective constituencies.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com