BBMP mayoral poll: We’ve hidden our 76 men away, say Congress leaders

BENGALURU: Leaders of the ruling Congress are on the verge of forging a deal with their counterparts in JD (S) to grab power in BBMP, but on Friday they chose to ferry successful candidates to a secret location in order to prevent them from being wooed by BJP leaders through “Operation Kamala”

Transport minister R. Ramalinga Reddy, food and civil supplies minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda and Yeswanthpur legislator S.T. Somashekar told the media that a BJP leader spoke to a successful woman contestant and offered her money to join the saffron party.

In fact, she had quit the BJP and won on a Congress ticket in BBMP polls held on August 22. BJP leaders were desperate to return to power and therefore were ready to go to any extent to poach the winners. “After coming to know about it, we have decided to take all our winners to a secret location till September 11 to prevent them from being poached by BJP leaders,” they added.

Denying allegations that they were resorting to horse-trading to capture power in BBMP, they said such tactics were resorted to by the previous BJP government with the help of minelords of Ballari who lured 20 JD(S) and Congress legislators to continue in power.

“We are not indulging in Operation Hastha to woo the winners of other parties thanks to support of JD(S) and seven independent members. No offer has been made to independent members and they came on their own to support the Congress. Our intention is to provide a clean and corruption-free administration in the interest of development of Bengaluru city,” they added.

Defending the deal with JD (S) leaders, they said there were no permanent friends or enemies in politics, and every party ought to change its stand according to the situation.

Sworn critic Ugrappa, says JD(S) lesser evil

Just like Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, another die-hard supporter-turned-acerbic critic of JD(S) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda, on Friday changed his stance in support of the deal between Congress and JD(S) to capture power in BBMP.

Former leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, Mr V.S. Ugrappa, told the media that it was a question of choosing the “lesser evil” as polls to BBMP had thrown up a hung council. In such situations, political parties opt to join hands with a party other than the principal Opposition. “We have joined hands with JD(S) to clean up the system which was ruined by BJP,” he added.

He, however, declined to comment on his decade-long tirade against Mr Deve Gowda and members of his family. Responding to allegations by BJP leaders that he had enrolled as a voter in Pavagada town but got his name deleted from the voters list after BBMP polls, Mr Ugrappa said, “Since 2010, I have been living in HSR layout and during 2013 elections, I voted in Bommanahalli Assembly constituency. It is true that my name was still on the voters’ list in Pavagada, but I have not voted there. I had given a letter requesting deletion of my name from the voters list a month ago, but the officials acted on it last week after a reminder. But why have BJP leaders forgotten that Mr Jaggesh, who had earlier won from Turuvekere, has his name on the voters list in Turuvekere, and Malleswaram Assembly constituency. I will expose more such cases in the near future.”