Bengaluru, (DHNS): The city witnessed high drama on the eve of mayoral election on Thursday, with the Congress taking to resort politics again, even as sources in the party said Gangambike Mallikarjun from Jayanagar ward was all set to become the 52nd mayor of the city.

A stiff competition had emerged between Gangambike, Soumya Shivakumar from Shantinagar ward and Lavanya Ganesh from Lingarajapuram ward. However, Gangambike, who is a Lingayat and is backed by senior Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy and Shamanur Shivashankarappa, is most likely to bag the coveted post. Meanwhile, Congress leaders returned to ‘resort politics’ for the second time this year.

As two independent candidates out of eight went missing on Thursday afternoon, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao said, “Anand and Ramesh have been forcibly taken by the BJP. It’s almost like they’ve been kidnapped. The two will come back by evening. The BJP will fail.”

“The independent corporators are with us for the past three years. But ‘Operation Kamala’ continues. The BJP is making calls and spreading lies that there is confusion in the coalition government,” he said. He also said that MLAs from the BJP — R Ashoka, Ashwathnarayan and Satish Reddy — instead of fighting for city’s development by securing more grants from the Centre, are chasing power through poor means.

Following directions from senior leaders, KR Puram MLA Byrathi Basavaraju and Yashwantpur MLA S T Somashekar are said to have taken the remaining six independent candidates to Eagleton Resort on Thursday evening. It is learnt that they will be brought directly to the BBMP Council on Friday morning for elections.

Congress leaders had taken shelter in the resort earlier this year, just before the formation of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in May. For the fourth time, the Congress-JD(S) equation will stay intact. The former will hold the mayor’s post while the latter will take the deputy’s post. According to senior leaders in JD(S), Ramila Umashankar from the party is likely to become the deputy mayor.