Mayoral polls: BJP busy wooing independent corporators

With Mayoral elections at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) fast approaching, senior BJP leaders have set their eyes to woo independent corporators in the city.

BJP sources revealed that the party leader R Ashoka has been working to get the support of independents. Ashok even held a meeting with his party members in this regard on Tuesday.

Rajajinagar MLA Suresh Kumar also said that the party will be fielding their own candidates for the polls this time. “However, the names of these candidates are not finalised yet,” he said.

“We will have a meeting post-Ganesha festival to finalise on the contenders,” said Kumar. “We are in a situation similar to ‘So near, yet so far’. All we need is the support of about eight candidates, among which two independents are eager to join us,” said Kumar.

Meanwhile, the opposition leader in the BBMP council Padmanabha Reddy said the BJP is fighting a clean contest, and not fake votes to win elections. “We do not want to indulge in fake voting process, like how Congress did in the previous elections,” said Reddy.

On the other hand, Congress party leaders are also trying to safeguard independent candidates currently supporting the Congress-JD(S) alliance.

Senior Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy held a meeting with Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Dinesh Gundu Rao at a private hotel on Tuesday. It is learnt that the leaders have advised the corporators to keep their flocks together.

The Mayoral polls are scheduled on September 28th. BJP corporators form the single largest majority party in the BBMP council with 100 corporators. The Congress has 75 corporators and is in power with the help of 15 JD(S) corporators.

Out of the 259 seats in the BBMP council, Congress-JD(S) alliance has 137, including eight independent corporators, legislators and members of parliament, while the BJP has 122, including its legislators and members of parliament.