Ballari: With the possibility of ‘Operation Hastha’, the vary BJP has sent its newly elected 21 ZP members on a tour, so as to give little scope for horse-trading by the Congress.
The Congress has won 17 of the 40 seats, while the BJP has won 21, enjoying simple majority to take over the reins of administration of the zilla panchayat in Ballari. The two Independents who have won are Congress rebel candidates.
The Congress hopes to increase its strength to 19, and, with the support of the two Independents, gain simple majority to wrest control of the ZP from the BJP and in a bid to do that the Congress made attempts to get three of the newly elected BJP members in Sandur taluk into its fold.
On learning about this, BJP leader Sriramulu and others rushed to Sandur and ensured that the two members were kept in a safe place and as an added precaution also took 21 members to ‘safer’ pockets.
Sriramulu held a closed-door meeting with B.S. Anand Singh, Vijayanagar MLA, M.S. Somalingappa, Mrutyunjaya Jinaga, both former legislators and BJP district unit president Nemiraj Naik, where an unanimous decision was taken to send the newly elected party members on a tour.
