Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Sep 25: The BJP appears to have given up its efforts to unseat the coalition government after high drama lasting several days. As a result, the Congress and JD(S) have succeeded in getting their nominees elected unopposed to the legislative council.

The Congress has called for its parliamentary party meeting here on Tuesday September 25 in order to seal the cracks within its camp by appeasing unhappy legislators. An effort would be made to sort out the grouses the MLAs who were thinking of deserting the party, it is learnt.

Deputy chief minister Dr G Parameshwar, said that besides legislative council election, other issues will also be discussed at the meeting. Speaking about complaints by some legislators about discrimination, he agreed that some people possibly might be nursing such thoughts but actually the government has not been indulging in such things.

Monday was the last day for filing of nominations for three vacant seats in the legislative council, for which election will be held on October 4. On behalf of Congress, M C Venugopal and Nazeer Ahmed filed their nominations while JD(S) fielded its youth unit president, Ramesh Gowda. As no one was fielded on behalf of BJP, it is almost certain that all these three nominees will get elected. Venugopal and Nazeer Ahmed filed nomination papers on Monday morning in the presence of deputy chief minister, Dr G Parameshwar, as well as ministers, Krishna Byre Gowda and Priyank Kharge, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president, Ishwar Khandre and other leaders.

It is said that BJP was trying to figure out whether it is possible to convince some legislators from Congress to cross-vote in favour of its candidates. With the intervention of Siddaramaiah and national leaders of the Congress, the differences within the Congress are being addressed. The BJP, which was hopeful of conjuring up something, gave up its efforts and dropped its proposal to field B J Puttaswamy, C P Yogeshwar and Malikayya Guttedar. As a result, in spite of being the largest party, BJP has been robbed of its chance to field candidate for the legislative council election.