Sa Ra Nandish, brother of Tourism and Sericulture Minister Sa Ra Mahesh of the JD(S), who took charge as the in-charge president of the Zilla Panchayat, hinted at renewing the alliance with the BJP, like in the past two decades, in the local body.

It has to be recalled that the JD(S)-Congress coalition successfully elected the Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) on November 17, 2018, following the formation of the state government.

Pushpalatha Jagannath of the Congress was elected as Mayor while Shafi Ahmad of the JD(S) was elected as Deputy Mayor. In the 65-member MCC, there were 22 BJP members, 19 Congress members, 18 JD(S) members, one BSP member and five Independents.

Earlier in 2012, Rajeshwari Puttaswamy was the last Congress corporator to be elected as Mayor of Mysuru. Since the formation of the council of the MCC in 2013, the JD(S) had formed a truck with the BJP. It has to be noted that the BJP had been a natural partner to the JD(S) in Mysuru district and had played a major role in keeping the Congress away from power in most of the local bodies, including the MCC and the ZP.

Nandish took charge as the in-charge president of the ZP, in the city on Thursday, as the resignation of Nayeema Sultana, the earlier president, was accepted recently.

“All members of the JD(S) are interested in continuing the alliance with the BJP in the ZP. We will try to convince the party high command on this. We are hopeful of a positive response from them. Although there is a JD(S)-Congress coalition government in the state, we will form an alliance with the BJP in the ZP alone as it is the members’ wish. As our party is in power in the state, we are hopeful of getting more funds for development of Mysuru,” he said.

As Nandish is only an in-charge president, the new president will have to be elected for the remaining term of the ZP.

After serving for 31 months, Nayeema Sultana of the JD(S) and vice president G Nataraj of BJP decided to tender their resignation on December 21, 2018.

The JD(S) and the BJP had entered into an agreement to form the council during the election for the president post in May 2016. While the Congress is the single largest party with 22 seats, JD(S) has 18 and BJP eight seats.