BENGALURU: Bengaluru is all set to elect the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Friday. The elections were necessitated after the term of Mayor R Sampath Raj and Deputy Mayor Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy ended on Thursday. 


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Till Thursday evening, the Congress had been engaged in hectic consultations to decide the candidate for the elections. The Congress has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has poached two independent corporators who had been supporting the former. 


After the two independent corporators switched loyalties to the BJP, Congress deputed its MLAs ST Somashekhar and Munirathna to keep five other independent corporators under their watch at the resort on the outskirts of the city.


However, KPCC President Dinesh Gundurao has said that he is confident of getting the support from the two corporators. "We have with us all the independent corporators except for the two who are learnt to have gone to the rival side. We are confident that they will also come back," Somashekhar said.


BJP had emerged as the single largest party in the 2015 Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council by winning 100 seats. The Congress had come second with 75 seats while the Janata Dal Secular (JDS) bagged 15 seats. 


The Congress and the JDS had come together with a support of seven other independent corporators. Reaching an agreement over power sharing, Congress got the mayor post while deputy mayor post was given to the JDS.


The term of the municipal council is of five years, but mayor and deputy mayor have a term of 11 months. The mayor and deputy mayors are elected by an electoral college comprising corporators and also MLAs, MLCs, MPs, who are voters in the city.