Bengaluru,Dec 27 (DHNS): Congress rebel candidate B T Dayananda Reddy in the Bengaluru seat has sprung a surprise by striking an agreement with the BJP, in a bid to outsmart Congress candidate M Narayanswamy. Reddy hopes that this poll-eve strategy will be a game-changer.

Late on Saturday, he met BJP legislator S R Vishwanath and party candidate Doddabasavaraju and struck a deal to support the latter, provided the saffron party too returned the favour. The BJP readily agreed to the proposal, which now gives an edge to Reddy and Doddabasavaraju, leaving Narayanswamy behind in the race.

Reddy told Deccan Herald that he had convinced BJP to ask its supporters to cast their second preferential votes to him, while his supporters would do the same in favour of Doddabasavaraju.

“As it is a triangular fight, none of the three candidates can gain a simple majority of the votes cast. So, I decided to approach the BJP. The second preferential votes would be the deciding factor. Now that the deal has been struck, the fight is between the BJP candidate and me,” he said.

Bengaluru has 2,762 voters and the winning candidate requires 1,381 votes to win. With the second preferential votes now being guaranteed for both Reddy and Doddabasavaraju, each candidate is hoping to bag nearly 1,000 votes.

Reddy, who has taken the Congress party, especially Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, head on, has vouched to defeat Narayanaswamy at any cost. A sitting MLC, he was denied ticket by the Congress, owing to his differences with Ramalinga Reddy.

“I want to prove to everybody that I am a better strategist that Ramalinga Reddy. While I am a strategist, he is a conspirator,” he said.

BJP district president Muniraju and MLA Satish Reddy are learnt to have given their consent to Reddy’s plan over phone.