Mysore/Mysuru: With the tenure of current Mayor Tasneem of JD(S) set to end in a week (Jan. 17) and the Mayoral polls round the corner, the Congress and the BJP have set their eyes on JD(S) for bagging the post of Mayor for the next term.

At present, the Congress- JD(S) coalition is ruling the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), with Tasneem of JD(S) as the Mayor and C. Sridhar of Congress as the Deputy Mayor.

No party has an absolute majority in the 65-member Civic Body, with the BJP winning 22 seats, Congress 19, JD(S) 18, BSP 1 and five independents winning in the elections held in 2018. With the Government likely to announce the reservation matrix for the Mayoral polls shortly, all the three major parties are eagerly awaiting it so that they could make a choice of their candidates.

After the MCC polls were held in Aug. 2018, the JD(S)-Congress coalition which was then ruling the State, forged an alliance in the MCC too, according to which Pushpalatha Jagannath of the Congress became the Mayor and Shafi Ahmed of the JD(S), the Deputy Mayor for the first term. Later, Tasneem of the JD(S) and C. Sridhar of the Congress became the Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively for the second term as per an understanding reached by the coalition partners then.

But now, the political scenario in the State has changed, with the BJP Government, which came to power after the collapse of the Coalition Government in July 2019, gaining ground and accordingly, the political landscape in the MCC too is likely to change in the forthcoming Mayoral polls.

The BJP which has never ruled the MCC, is now making all-out efforts to gain power in the Civic Body too and accordingly, is said to have held parleys with the JD(S), which is currently ruling the MCC with support from the Congress. The BJP being the largest party in the MCC, is likely to get support from the JD(S) this time in the changed political scenario, with the JD(S) too reportedly not opposed to the idea.

With the dates of the Mayoral polls likely to be announced any moment, District Minister S.T. Somashekar is said to have held talks with the party Corporators on Friday, wherein majority of the leaders favoured an alliance with the JD(S) for taking control of the MCC, in which the BJP has failed to come to power on its own or with support from other parties in the past.

Meanwhile, the JD(S) too is said to hold a meeting of its Corporators today to decide the party’s strategy for the Mayoral polls. The meeting is likely to discuss about getting the Mayor post in case the party decides to ally with the BJP after ditching the Congress.

As far as the Congress is concerned, the party is hoping that it coalition partner JD(S) may not break the alliance and continue with the party till the current tenure of the MCC is completed, with more than two years remaining. As uncertainty persists over the continuance of the ruling Coalition in the MCC, the Congress is said to be keenly watching the moves of its Coalition partner JD(S) in the backdrop of the changed political scenario in the State.

However, political pundits feel that the tussle for the all-important Mayor post is likely to be the main issue for the BJP and the JD(S), in case the two parties forge a new alliance in the MCC to take control of the Civic Body.