MYSURU: Congress sprang a surprise at the last minute, turning Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s calculations upside down, with KPCC president DK Shivakumar and his men unconditionally supporting JDS in the mayoral election at the Mysore City Corporation on Wednesday. The BJP, despite being the single-largest party with 25 members and three elected representatives, has to continue to sit in the opposition in the Mysuru City Council.
Eyeing an opportunity to create history, the BJP had worked hard for over a fortnight, putting the might of district in-charge minister ST Somashekhar, local MP Pratap Simha and Yediyurappa to wrest the mayoral post by clinching a deal with JDS. It had put up Sunanda Palnetra, a relative of Yediyurappa, as the candidate for the top post.
The saffron party wanted to take advantage of differences between JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy and Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah to come to power in the corporation for the first time. They were also bolstered by the election of their candidate, M K Pranesh, as Legislative Council deputy chairman recently with the help of JDS. They expected a repeat of this arrangement locally. But that was not to be.Till recently, Kumaraswamy, who had camped in Mysuru, had ruled out any truck with Congress, and had gone on to severely criticise Siddaramaiah for terming JDS a non entity.
Siddaramaiah, who is the local strongman, too had insisted that party men should go to JDS only if the mayor’s post comes to Congress. He wanted the regional party to honour its earlier arrangement of sharing the mayor’s post alternate years. With the standoff seeming not to end, KPCC working president R Dhruvanarayan and senior leader Tanveer Sait reached out to Shvakumar to work out a solution. On Wednesday, Dhruvanarayan got the go-ahead and held talks with JDS leaders, of all places, on the corridors of corporation and struck a deal, literally minutes before the mayoral election.
The BJP leaders, who were all prepared for celebrations, were shell shocked when Congress supported JDS to score a three-fourth majority in the 65-member Council. Congress sources said that it only proved to what extent the party would go to maintain its secular credentials and stop the saffron party from coming to power.
Winners take all