Bangalore: With less that 24 hours left for the mayoral poll, hectic lobbying is underway. The corporators will choose the 47th Mayor and 48th Deputy Mayor on Wednesday.

The BJP, which is the ruling party in the BBMP council, has been struggling to arrive at a consensus on its mayoral candidate. Senior corporators Katte Satyanarayana, K. C. Ramamurthy (both Brahmins) and B.R. Nanjundappa (Vokkaliga) are the frontrunners for the post.

But the party high command, at a meeting held on Tuesday, finalised Satyanarayana’s name for the post, taking into account his seniority and loyalty towards the party and RSS, sources said.

Bengaluru to get BJP mayor, Cong deputy’ : With less than 24 hours left for the Mayoral poll to choose the first citizen of the city, hectic lobbying is already under way. The mayoral poll is slated for September 4, which means the city will soon get its 47th Mayor and 48th Deputy Mayor.

The BJP has been finding it difficult to arrive at a consensus on its mayoral candidate. A heated race between the Vokkaliga and Brahmin community was anticipated  after the dates for the mayoral poll were announced by the state government.

Senior corporators Katte Satyanarayana, K. C. Rama­murthy (both Brahmins) and B. R. Nanjundappa (Vokkaliga) are the front runners for the coveted post. However, the party high command, at a meeting held on Tuesday, have finalized  Basa­vanagudi corporator Katte Satya­narayana, taking into account his seniority and loyalty towards the party and RSS,  sources said.

So, senior corporator Katte Satyanarayana (Basavanagudi) and C. K. Ramamurthy (Pattabh­iramanagar) are the frontrunners for the coveted post, unless the party decides to give the mayor’s post to the Vokkaliga community. B. R. Nanjundappa (JP Park) and Ganga Byraiah (Dr. Rajkumar ward) are two other contenders from the Vokkaliga community, sources added.

The party has decided to strike a balance between both communities while choosing the mayor and the ruling party leader. The party high command has elicited individual opinions from each of the city legislators on Monday and from corporators on Tuesday.

After taking their response into consideration, the high command seems to have zeroed in on Satyanarayana’s candidature, sources said. Other contenders have been silenced with the promise of other posts, like that of standing committee chairman.

Two corporators from South Bengaluru have been Mayor in the last two years. BJP leader V. Somanna and legislators like S. Suresh Kumar (Rajajinagar) and Aravind Limbavali (Mahadeva­pura) also vied to have a corporator from their constituency as the Mayor.

Satyanarayana had left no stone unturned to get the category changed to General from General (Women) to stake his claim. He also claimed that being the corporator for four consecutive terms meant he was eligible to become the Mayor. The regional commissioner Gourav Gupta will preside over the Mayoral polls.