Sunanda Palanethra, a three-time corporator, became the first BJP mayor of Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) after the JDS-Congress power-sharing alliance fell apart on Wednesday.
The mayor's post (reserved for woman from general category) had fallen vacant after the Karnataka High Court disqualified incumbent mayor Rukmini Madegowda of the JDS in May this year, for concealing her source of income in her election affidavit.
A hung verdict in the 2018 MCC polls had brought about the JDS-Congress alliance to rule the 65-member council.
In a suspenseful election, the BJP candidate won by bagging 26 votes, while Congress nominee Shanthakumari got only 22 votes and the JDS tactfully decided to remain neutral, which favoured the BJP.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel, Mysuru MLA S.A. Ramadas and Mysuru MP Pratap Simha hailed the party's victory and attributed it to the strategy adopted by S.T. Somashekhar, the district in-charge minister.
The Congress members staged a walkout protesting against the JDS decision to back the BJP.
The saffron party had emerged as the single largest party in the 2018 polls with 23 seats, while the Congress won 19, JDS 17, BSP 1 and Independents 5. But, as always, the BJP had remained deprived of the coveted post since the inception of the MCC in 1985, owing to the JDS-Congress alliance.
But this time, the JDS changed its strategy perhaps keeping in mind the upcoming panchayat polls and the general elections, where it will need to take on its arch-rival Congress. The party is said to have had a change of heart due to a few local JDS leaders cosying up to the Congress, which has irked the party leadership.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders MLA Tanveer Sait and KPCC working president R. Dhruvanarayan, who had hoped to garner JDS's support for their candidate, expressed disappointed with the development.
