In Mysore ZP parties trying hard for magic number

Elections to president and vice-president on Sept 18; JD(S), BJP combine faces threat

Even as friends turned foes, B S Yeddyurappa and K S Eshwarappa are showing signs of burying hatchets at the State level, alluding the merger of Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) with BJP, at Mysore ZP, the Yeddyurappa led party has emerged as a game changer. KJP now wields the power of making or marring the prospects of the saffron party in the run up to the elections to the posts of president and vice-president scheduled on September 18.

The BJP, which is in a catch-22 situation is trying hard to continue the show with its ally JD(S) by making attempts to win back its five member split faction (identified with KJP), which has turned into a juggernaut to crack. Not willing to give up, Congress is warming up to KJP.

This has gained momentum, especially after the same allies (JD(S) and BJP) ascended the seat of power for the first time in Mysore City Corporation (MCC), with JD(S) winning both mayor and deputy mayor seats recently.

In the elections held to Mysore ZP in the year 2011, Congress emerged as a single largest party winning highest of 21 seats against the total 46, while JD(S) won 16, BJP eight and one independent.  The reservation for president was fixed for general and BCM (A) for vice-president.

For the first time in the history of ZP, JD(S) and BJP joined hands with Suneetha Veerappagowda and K Shivaram being anointed as president and vice-president respectively for a period of 20 months in February 2011.

 Later, due to internal bickerings, Suneetha Veerappagowda had to tender her resignation after 17 months, three months short of completing the term. For the remaining term, Bhagya Shivaumurthy of JD(S) was elected president and Bhagyalakshmi K of BJP vice-president.

 The duo was later succeeded by Ka Pu Siddaveerappa of BJP (older brother of Ka Pu Siddalingaswamy of KJP) and M K Suchitra of JD(S) respectively. They too were unlucky, as they had to resign, after 11 months in office. This was due to the no confidence motion tabled by opposition Congress with 22 members (including the lone independent who joined the party later) supported by three others including two of KJP and one BJP member totalling 25 (crossing the magic number of 24), recently.

Earlier to this, five of the eight BJP members had defected to KJP. They are -- Sindhuvalli Kempanna (Badanvalu), Manjula Puttaswamy (Devalapura), Gowramma Chikkamadayaka (Talkad), Chikkaranganayaka (Hullahalli) and Ka Pu Siddaveerappa (Doddakavalande). Lalitha G T Devegowda (Hangod) also of BJP followed her husband and Chamundeshwari MLA G T Devegowda into JD(S), reducing BJP to skeletal two with K Shivaram (Kalale) and Bhagyalakshmi K (Mullur).

Sources told Deccan Herald, Devegowda who has jumped into the scene is making all efforts to woo back the broken faction of BJP. The reason being Devegowda’s wife Lalitha is the strong aspirant for the president’s seat.

 Similarly, BJP with its MLC Siddaraju is trying to hold parleys with Kempanna and Manjula, but to no avail.

There are no dearth of aspirants in Congress too with Koorgalli Mahadev representing Hinkal and L Madappa from Bilikere emerging as the strong aspirants.

For vice-president, Revamma Malegowda of Hadinaaru and Bhramarambha Mallikarjuna Swamy of Sosale are the aspirants.

However, both for Congress and JD(S), five ZP members who have identified with KJP are the game changers. But for Congress, what matters is just two members to reach the magic number to wrest power from the allies JD(S) and BJP.