BJP is trying its best to rope in independents in order to increase its vote share
BENGALURU: After much delay, elections for the posts of Mayor, deputy Mayor and four standing committees — tax and finance, health, accounts and market — will be held on Tuesday. Earlier, the elections were scheduled to be held on September 27 but were postponed because the BBMP council committee took the decision to hold all the elections together — Mayor, Deputy Mayor and 12 standing committees.
But some people approached the High Court, which put the elections of some standing committees on hold. Harsha Gupta, Bengaluru Regional Commissioner, BBMP, said they cannot violate the High Court orders, so the elections will be held on October 1. Elections for the rest will be held once cases are disposed and as per the court directions.
As soon as the dates were finalised, corporators and party heads of BJP, Congress and JD(S) went into their huddle rooms to finalise the candidates. Till late on Monday evening, the party heads were holding meetings to put their best candidate forward for the Mayor’s post. The fate of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be decided by five Lok Sabha members (one Congress and four BJP), nine Rajya Sabha members (six from Congress and two from BJP), 23 MLAs (11 Congress, 11 BJP and one JDS) and 198 councillors (76 Congress, 14 JDS, 101 BJP and seven independent).
According to sources, BJP is trying hard to ensure that the independents join hands with them to increase their vote share and ensure that BJP Mayor holds the seat of power. The BJP is of the opinion that this will only be beneficial as centre, state and the city will all be governed by one party.
Meanwhile, Congress is trying its best to keep the JDS and independents happy so that it can retain its power in the city with a Congress Mayor once again. Congress is looking at this as its only ray of hope to hold power in the city, after facing a defeat in the trust vote.
