With three of its nominated members in the Legislative Council set to retire next year, the BJP camp is now looking at a long-term alliance with the JD(S) in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Council.
The BJP, which is four short to get its choice of mayoral candidates in the BBMP Council, will find its number depleted with party MLCs P V Krishna Bhatta, Jaggesh and Lahar Singh Siroya retiring in the first half of 2016. The Congress will be nominating its candidates to replace the BJP members.
Besides, two BJP MLCs from Bengaluru – Ashwathnarayana and V Somanna – elected by the members of the Legislative Assembly will retire in June 2016, further reducing the count of the saffron party and thus its prospects in the BBMP Council in the coming years.
According to the party sources, the BJP leaders now feel that roping in the independents may help the party come to power in the BBMP for the present year and an alliance with the JD(S) will help it in the long run. An alliance can also be put in place for the election to 25 seats in the Legislative Council, which will fall vacant in January 2016 and are to be filled by the members of the local bodies, the sources said.
The party, which has placed its proposal before the JD(S), is awaiting a response. The BJP has promised the JD(S) a deputy mayor’s post and four chairpersons of standing committees in the BBMP Council for its support.
The BJP is also mulling over filing a petition before the High Court questioning the right of the legislators and the MPs to participate in the meetings of the local bodies.
A recent order of the Karnataka High Court that the jurisdictional MLA and MP had no right to vote in a no-confidence motion against the president and vice president of the Basavakalyan municipal council has prompted the BJP to take up the move. The court had delivered the judgment on August 26 in a case filed by Shahjahan Ahmed and Abdul Gaffar, the president and member, respectively, of the Basavakalyan city municipal council.
Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, MLC Ashwathnarayana accused the State government of deliberately trying to delay the notification of the voters’ list for the mayoral polls.
Former law minister Suresh Kumar accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of trying to grab power in the BBMP Council through the backdoor, though the Congress had been rejected by the people.
