BENGALURU: Amid talks of JD(S) withdrawing support, Congress is confident of retaining Mayor post in alliance with it, yet again. Congress was successful in getting Mayor post in the last two years with the support of JD(S) and independents, and Manjunath Reddy and G Padmavathi became Mayors.KPCC president G Parameshwara on Monday said he would be personally meeting JD(S) supremo Deve Gowda and state president H D Kumaraswamy to seek their support for the Mayoral elections. “We have come together to fight communal forces and I will seek their support once again to fight BJP,” he said. He, however, refused to comment on whether the Congress would be willing to hand over the Mayor’s post to JD(S) as the party has been demanding.
“We have done good work for the city together. The alliance will continue and also the good work,” KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao told Express.Over demands of JD(S), Dinesh said there is nothing wrong in asking. “They have not yet conveyed their demands to us formally. If they do so, we will sit together and sort out the issues,’’ he said.When asked about the chances of the number of MLCs getting reduced, Dinesh said that will not make much of a difference.
“We are just focusing on carrying forward our good works to the third year,’’ he added.
When contacted, a BJP member from BBMP Council said that it is a prestige issue for Congress to retain Mayor post as they are in power in the State. “Congress might pay a heavy amount to the JD(S) voters. They want to retain Mayor post by hook or crook ,’’ he said.The Congress has just 109 votes while it needs to reach the magical figure of 134 to win. The JD(S) has 25 votes, including an independent MLC.