Bengaluru mayoral poll: BJP offers 10 Cong councillors cash rewards to resign

With the magic number to gain control over BBMP being 131, BJP’s strength, including corporator members, stands at 125, Congress at 111, JD(S) 21 and others 13.

In the run up to the September 11 voting in the Bengaluru city council to elect a Mayor for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), the ruling Congress in Karnataka has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of attempting to poach its councillors.

Who would have thought that the Congress and the JD(S) will come together and try forming the council at the BBMP especially after the mandate was in favour of the BJP.

“This is a classic example for derailing the mandate”.

The Bengaluru mayoral poll has taken an ugly turn with 10 Congress councilors alleging that the BJP is offering them cash reward of “crores of rupees” in return for quitting the party.

In an irony of sorts, Chief Minster Siddaramaiah, who made sure that the photo of former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda was removed from his chambers before assuming power, broke bread with his son H D Kumaraswamy over lunch to strike a deal. “A decision to keep them away from influence by the BJP will be taken only after the meeting of corporators”, Bengaluru in-charge minister Ramalinga Reddy said.

The BJP ” s joy of winning the civic polls in Bengaluru has been short-lived. “To increase the party’s strength, Achar, who is elected from Chitradurga, has been included in the voters’ list taking advantage of a lacuna in the KMC Act”. It sought Governor Vajubhai R. Vala’s intervention to prevent the Congress government from including the names of MLCs from other districts as voters in the mayoral elections. The meeting was seen as a formal confirmation that the JD(S) and Congress sealed an alliance to elect the city’s new Mayor and Deputy Mayor on September 11.

At the moment it appears as though the JD(S)-Congress combine will form the council.

A few workers of the Congress staged a protest in front of actor and BJP MLC Jaggesh for inclusion of his name in the voters’ list in Bengaluru, which would enable him to cast vote during the BBMP Council election to the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor.