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Much to the dismay of the ruling Congress, the JD (S) and the BJP are likely to arrive at a tacit understanding for the by-polls to the two Lok Sabha and three Legislative Council seats scheduled to be held this month. Such an effort is being made for the first time after the coalition experiment of the two parties collapsed in November 2007.

As part of the possible understanding, the BJP is unlikely to field its candidates from Bangalore Rural and Mandya Lok Sabha seats to support the JD(S). In turn, the JD(S) will be supporting the BJP candidates in the by-elections to the Council from the Local Authorities constituencies of Mysore, Dharwad and Chitradurga to be held on August 22. The fact remains that the BJP hardly has any base in Mandya and Bangalore Rural.

JD(S) State President H D Kumaraswamy and former chief minister Jagadish Shettar and former deputy chief minister R Ashoka of the BJP have held two rounds of talks in this regard. “The outcome has been positive. The talks are still on and we will arrive at a decision on Friday,” Shettar told Deccan Herald.  The last date for filing nomination papers for the Lok Sabha by-polls is August 3 and the elections are scheduled to be held on August 21.

 While Shettar did not go into the nitty-gritty of the understanding, sources said the intention of both the parties is to retain the seats which were held by them. The two Lok Sabha seats were represented by JD(S) and the three Council seats were held by the BJP. The BJP and the JD(S) do not want to give the Congress an edge ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls by letting it to capture any of these seats.

The three Council seats were held by BJP members - K R Mallikarjunappa (Mysore), Shivaraj Sajjanar (Dharwad) and G H Thippa Reddy (Chitradurga). While Mallikarjunappa and Sajjanar quit the BJP to join the KJP, Thippa Reddy was elected to the Assembly during the recent elections.

It is learnt that KJP leader C M Udasi, a close associate of Yeddyurappa, is planning to contest the Council bypolls. But, it is to be seen whether KJP chief B S Yeddyurappa is going to field candidates from his party or allow his followers to contest on the BJP ticket.

Parties not keen

Although no party is keen on contesting the Lok Sabha bypolls, they have been left with no choice. The JD (S) has decided to field former legislator C S Puttaraju from Mandya. Congress leaders M S Atmananda, L R Shivarame Gowda and Suresh Gowda are making efforts to get the ticket for the Mandya seat.

No JD(S) candidate yet

However, the JD(S) has not been able to finalise its candidate for Bangalore Rural. As former MLA Anitha Kumaraswamy is reluctant to contest, the party is toying with the idea of fielding either Prabhakar Reddy, who lost the recent Assembly polls from Bangalore South seat, or Kunigal MLA D Nagarajaiah.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah held a meeting with D K Shivakumar, the legislator from Kanakapura. The legislator is keen on fielding his brother D K Suresh as the candidate from Bangalore Rural, it is said. Former Union minister the late M V Chandrashekar Murthy’s wife is also lobbying for ticket, it is learnt.

But, the Congress high command is yet to take a call on its nominees. Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara are going to Delhi to finalise the candidates.