Parties begin strategising ahead of Mayoral polls

The leaders of all three major parties - Congress, JD(S) and BJP - in the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) are involved in hectic politicking as the term of the present Mayor M J Ravikumar ends on Wednesday.

The process to elect the next Mayor is underway in the MCC. Even though Ravikumar of the JD(S) will continue as Mayor till the new Mayor is elected, he cannot conduct the Council meeting. He had been elected as Mayor on December 7, in 2016, with the support of the BJP corporators.

MCC commissioner G Jagadeesha said, as the Mayor's term ends, a letter has been sent to the regional commissioner, urging him to initiate the process for the election of the next Mayor.

"I have also written a letter to the urban development secretary, to take steps to announce the reservation for the next Mayor. Once the reservation is announced, the regional commissioner will begin the process for the election," he said.

Ravikumar is the 30th mayor of the 154-year old urban civic body. The next mayor will be the last one in the existing Council of Corporators. Next year, election to the 65 wards of the MCC will have to be held to choose the new council.

Ravikumar said his term has given him satisfaction. "I will continue my work as corporator for one more year. The detailed project reports on the proposed renovation of the partially collapsed Lansdowne building and Devaraja Market building have been submitted to the government. As more funds are required for the widening of Irwin Road, the works have been stopped," he said.

An aspirant for the post from the JD(S) said, the Mayor's post will go to the JD(S) either way, whether it allies with the BJP or the Congress. The MCC has a total of 74 voters, including corporators, MLAs, MLCs and MPs. With 25 votes, Congress is the single largest party, closely followed by the JD(S) (23), BJP (15), seven Independents, BSR Congress (1), KJP (1) and SDPI (2).

Last year, the JD(S) had formed a truck with the BJP, even though it resulted in a bit of confusion in the elections to the standing committees. If the alliance continues with the BJP, the Mayor's post should be given to the BJP, so the JD(S) leaders are planning to change the alliance and go with the Congress, to wrest the post once again. But it is learnt that the Congress leaders may stake their claim for the post, being the single largest party. However, the BJP leaders are trying their best to keep the alliance going.

Last year, MLA Sa Ra Mahesh of the JD(S) from KR Nagar, who maintains good equations with the BJP leaders, had been vested with the responsibility to manage the Mayor's election. However, the choice of Ravikumar as Mayor was that of JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy. The BJP leaders, who are in touch with their counterparts in JD(S), are keeping their fingers crossed.