The JD(S) is likely to go alone in the Urban Local Body (ULB) polls as party leaders and also workers are not keen on an alliance with the Congress at the local level.
Polls for 108 ULBs including the corporations of Mysuru, Tumakuru and Shivamogga are likely to be held in September this year.
A fractured verdict in the 2018 Assembly polls witnessed the JD(S) and the Congress come to together to stitch an alliance to form a coalition government.
The Congress and JD(S) have even announced that they will have a pre-poll alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
However, things are very much different at the local level. By and large the feeling in the JD(S) is that an alliance in pockets where the party has a straight fight between
the Congress could help the BJP help make electoral inroads. A meeting of district JD(S) presidents in Bengaluru on Saturday is said to have discussed this aspect at
length.
JD(S) has a dominant presence in Ramanagaram, Mandya, Hassan districts and has a straight contest with the Congress in several districts including Chamarajnagar, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Bengaluru Rural among others. Besides, it was felt that strength of the JD(S) is that it has a stronghold on local issues compared to the Congress. Pre-poll alliance for local body polls could threaten the very existence of the party.
It was also pointed out that the last time the two parties were in an alliance between 2004 and 2006, they had fought ULB polls independently. It would be better to go in for post-poll alliance in ULBs is the general outlook in the JD(S). In the past there are plenty of instances wherein the JD(S) has joined hands with the Congress is some ULBs and the BJP in others thereby bagging the post of president in bodies with fractured verdict.
In January this year, a Congress rebel candidate won the mayoral election in Mysuru City Corporation with
the support of the JD(S). The Congress was taken by surprise as the JD(S) had all along between supporting the grand old party in the corporation.