Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Benglauru, Feb 13: The election to the lone seat in the legislative council here, for which elected MLAs will vote, will be held on February 17. BJP has fielded its deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi, as its candidate. While the BJP is sure winning this election, the JD(S) and the Congress do not have requisite numbers in their side.

In the meanwhile, a person named Anil has been fielded with JD(S) support in this election. Anil already has met Congress leader, D K Shivakumar, and JD(S) leaders. He also held talks with Congress Karnataka affairs in-charge, K C Venugopal. At the same time, Siddaramaiah has asserted several times that his party will not be fielding any candidate for this election, not it will support anyone.

The fact that Anil has struck conversation directly with top level leaders of the Congress has come as a shocker for the Congress leaders here. It is said that Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao, held a meeting on this issue and decided to stick to their stand of not supporting anyone. They have arrived at a decision not to extend outside support to JD(S) candidate at any cost.

Now BJP has 117 legislators. Congress and JD(S) together have 102 MLAs. Out of two independents, one is elected from BSP. As such, it is easy for the BJP to win the seat by issuing a whip. The independent candidate perhaps hopes to bank on the fact that he can win if some legislators stay away from voting because of anger in cabinet expansion.