Even though the BJP won the Mayoral polls in Mysuru by bagging both the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor with the support of JD(S), the saffron party has refused to acknowledge that it is in an alliance with the JD(S).
While Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the JD(S) had voted in favour of the BJP because it was aware of the maladministration of Mysuru under a Congress regime, the BJP leader Nirmal Kumar Surana, who was deputed as the party observer to the Mayoral polls in Mysuru sought to clarify that the party was not in any alliance with the JD(S).
Fielding reporters’ queries after the Mayoral polls, Mr. Surana said the BJP had not asked the JD(S) for support. The party fielded its candidates for both the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor and won both. Minister for Co-Operation S.T. Somashekar, who is also the Minister in charge of Mysuru district, claimed that the party’s strategy of remaining united paid dividends.
After the election of BJP’s Shivakumar as the Mayor with the help of votes cast by BJP and JD(S) members, the candidature of Reshma Banu of the JD(S) for the post of Deputy Mayor was rejected on technical grounds – the nomination papers were not accompanied by the Backward Class A certificate, the category for which the post was reserved. The members of BJP and JD(S) had voted in favour of G. Roopa from the BJP for the post of Deputy Mayor also. However, former Minister and BJP MLC A.H. Vishwanath, while acknowledging the support of the JD(S) in the Mayoral polls, said the BJP will give the post of Chairperson of all the four standing panels of the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) to the JD(S).
The Congress leaders, meanwhile, mocked the JD(S) for reportedly being taken for a ride by the BJP in the Mayoral polls. “They have not got either the post of Mayor or Deputy Mayor in return for supporting the BJP,” said former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah while claiming that the Congress would have won the Mayoral polls had all the three parties contested the elections separately on their own. “The JD(S) went with the BJP only to deprive us. They have no ideology. They claim to be secular. But, is going with the BJP, secularism?”, he asked.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) spokesperson Venkatesh H.A. said the Mayoral elections have exposed the mask of secularism that the JD(S) was wearing. The morality of JD(S) to sport the tag of secularism should be questioned when they are supporting a “communal” party like the BJP, he said. The Mayoral elections in Mysuru have proved that former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s brand of opportunistic politics is not guided by any principles, but only hunger for power, Mr. Venkatesh said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the JD(S) leaders said they decided to go with the BJP only after the Congress rejected its overtures.
