Former Minister N. Mahesh, who had been expelled from the BSP after he abstained from voting during the trust vote of the H.D. Kumaraswamy government last year, has drawn flak from the BSP leaders in the State for joining forces with the BJP and defeating the party’s candidate during last week’s elections to the post of president of Kollegal City Municipal Council (CMC).
Seven out of nine BSP councillors in the 31-member house went against the whip issued by the party in favour of its candidates during last week’s elections to the post of president and vice-president of Kollegal CMC.
The seven BSP members along with seven BJP members, one Independent, besides Chamarajanagar MP Srinivas Prasad and Mr. Mahesh himself had voted in favour of rebel BSP candidate Gangamma for the post of president and BJP’s Kavitha as vice president. The 31-member Kollegal CMC comprises 11 Congress members, 9 BSP members, 7 BJP members, besides four Independents.
Though Mr. Mahesh has been claiming that he would remain neutral and function as an Independent MLA, BSP leaders in the State pointed out that the Kollegal MLA’s move to align with the BJP in the recent CMC polls was preceded by his increasing proximity to the saffron party leaders. “He was hobnobbing with BJP Ministers and party leaders in the district,” said BSP’s State General Secretary Nagendra.
Call for resignation
Calling upon Mr. Mahesh, who had even as a Minister in the coalition government led by H.D. Kumaraswamy, to resign from the Assembly and get re-elected as an Independent, Mr. Nagendra said the Kollegal MLA should not forget the sweat of hundreds of BSP cadres, who had toiled hard for his successful election during the 2018 assembly polls. Many BSP workers had contributed their hard-earned wages for Mr. Mahesh’s election campaign, Mr Nagendra claimed.
Apart from Kollegal, the elections to the posts in Chamarajanagar too saw the lone BSP councillor vote in support of the BJP candidate.
Mr. Nagendra said the party had taken the development seriously had would be moving the courts soon for disqualification of all the BJP councillors, who had violated the whip.
‘Communal’ forces
Congress leader and former Chamarajanagar MP R. Dhruvanarayan too has criticised Mr. Mahesh for identifying himself with ‘communal’ forces after criticising them throughout his political career. Clearly, Mr. Mahesh does not believe in secularism, Mr Dhruvanarayan said.
