Cong ferries corporators to Madikeri

Fearing poaching by the BJP ahead of the September 11 BBMP mayor poll, the Congress shifted all its corporators-elect to resorts in Madikeri on Monday.

Seventy three of the 76 corporators-elect have been divided into two groups to facilitate their stay at Taj Vivanta and Club Mahindra resorts.

Almost all women Congress corporators-elect were accompanied by either their husband or a close relative. State Congress women’s wing president Lakshmi Hebbalkar, MLA S T Somashekar and Youth Congress president Rizwan Arshad have been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring safety of the party’s corporators-elect.

Another party MLA B A Basavaraj has taken three Congress and seven independent corporators-elect to a resort in Kerala. They are likely to join the rest of the group in Madikeri on Tuesday. The JD(S), which has entered into an alliance with the Congress to hold the reins of power in the BBMP, too, has kept its 14 corporators-elect at a resort in Kerala. The plan is to bring them to the City either on September 10 or 11, sources said.

“The BJP leaders are experts in poaching. So we have decided to be careful and shift the corporators-elect to resort in Kodagu till the mayor election is over,” KPCC chief Parameshwara told reporters.

He said that the JD(S) has voluntarily extended unconditional support to the Congress in the BBMP and that the JD(S) has not laid any condition for the alliance. Dropping the move to re-structure Bengaluru and punishing those responsible for BBMP borrowing Rs 9,000 crore are only suggestions by the JD(S), said Parameshwara.

The KPCC chief said he held two rounds of talks with JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on the alliance and that everything has been settled.

The intention is to keep the BJP away from power and work towards the development of the City. If necessary, the two parties will prepare a common minimum agenda for the smooth working of the alliance, he said.

Asked whether he was happy with the alliance, Parameshwara said individual opinion does not matter and that the decision was taken by the party with its larger interest in mind. Earlier in the day, Parameshwara chaired the KPCC office-bearers’ meeting and appraised the members on the move to join hands with the JD(S).