Council polls: JD(S) keen to contest Bangalore teachers' segment?

JD(S) leaders, including its state president H D Kumaraswamy and Nikhil Kumaraswamy, held a meeting with BJP leaders led by its veteran B S Yediyurappa at the latter’s house on Sunday to deliberate on seat sharing for forthcoming elections to Legislative Council polls in the state.

The Election Commission has announced the calendar of events for the Legislative Council byelection to the Bangalore Teachers constituency on February 16. 

Kumaraswamy accompanied by his party leaders G T Deve Gowda and Bandeppa Kashempur reportedly staked the claim to field his party candidate from Bangalore Teachers’ Constituency. They claimed that the segment happens to be JDS bastion.

Former JDS leader Puttanna, has won this seat four times. He has represented the seat from JDS for three terms in a row and after joining BJP, he won again in 2020. He resigned in 2023 only to join Congress to contest from Rajajinagar Assembly seat from which he lost the election.

The Bangalore Teachers’ segment covers Bengaluru Urban, Ramanagara and Bengaluru Rural districts.

A source from BJP added that the Yediyurappa and other BJP leaders have agreed in-principle but they have stated that central leaders will take the final call.

Apart from this, both party leaders felt it necessary to put up their own party candidates where both parties have been traditionally considered to be strong. For instance, in Old Mysuru region JDS could be best bet while in other parts BJP could field its candidates, the source in JDS explained.

Meanwhile after the meeting, Kumaraswamy told reporters that they had a fruitful discussion on forthcoming Legislative Council elections. 

“We discussed issues related to Bangalore Teachers constituency. We will move forward after BJP top brass decision,” he said. BJP state president, B Y Vijayendra cautiously maintained that both parties discussed issues concerning Legislative Council polls. “There was no talk about Lok Sabha seat sharing. This issue will be discussed at our party high command level,” he said in response to a question.

BJP veteran B S Yediyurappa said that the the meeting discussed to for coordinated efforts to win all seats in Legislative Council or in Lok Sabha.