Karnataka - Mysore   

Mayor: defectors owe explanation to voters

MYSORE: Mayor Ayub Khan has reacted bitterly to the defection of eight Janata Dal (Secular) and two independent corporators to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Though there is no threat to his post with the recent development, Mr. Khan criticised the defectors and the BJP on Tuesday.

“The politics of money power is a blot on democracy. The type of politics seen at the State level is now manifesting itself at the city level. It does not bode well for the country’s democratic traditions,” he said.

“These corporators owe an explanation to voters,” he said.

Mr. Khan ruled out any threat to the post of Mayor, which has been bagged by the Congress for a one-year term. He dismissed the possibility of the any no-confidence motion being moved against him. “The Congress is the ruling party and will remain the ruling party,” he said.

Mr. Khan was elected Mayor in February when the Congress had 22 seats in the 65-member Mysore City Corporation Council and the Janata Dal (S) and the BJP had 18 seats each besides seven independents. With the recent defection altering the composition of the council, the Congress is expected to cede the status of being the single largest party to the BJP, whose strength has increased to 28.

Though the BJP is expected to make a serious bid for the post of Mayor during the next Mayoral elections scheduled for February 2009, the party is still short of simple majority in the council.

Janata Dal (S) corporator and leader of the Opposition in the MCC council Sandesh Swamy said that the party had been taken by surprise over the sudden defection of eight of its corporators.

Mr. Swamy said that the eight corporators, who joined the BJP on Monday, attended a meeting convened by the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy at a hotel in Brindavan Gardens on Sunday. “All of them pledged that they would not quit the Janata Dal (S). Yet, they have joined the BJP. It is still not known what the reason for their change of heart was,” Mr. Swamy added.

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