Row over women representation in BBMP elections

According to a notification issued by the state government on August 3, of the 243 seats, 81 seats have been reserved for the candidates hailing from OBC, 28 for the SC and four for the ST communities.

The reservations proposed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) elections later this year have sparked a political slugfest in the state.

The reservations proposed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) elections later this year have sparked a political slugfest in the state.

According to a notification issued by the state government on August 3, of the 243 seats, 81 seats have been reserved for the candidates hailing from OBC, 28 for the SC and four for the ST communities. A total of 130 seats have been reserved for the candidates hailing from the general category. In all, half of the seats in all the above-mentioned reserved categories have been further reserved for women.

Moreover, out of the 97 wards under the assembly constituencies of Congress and one under a Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) legislator, 76 have been reserved for women.

Pushpalata Amarnath, the president of Karnataka Mahila Congress, said, “We are contesting the part where all of the women reservation has been put in Congress (assembly) constituencies, and this will not be balanced. In every constituency, there has to be a balance that has representation and cannot be skewed with only women or men. BBMP reservations were never a problem, but there is no such provision in the upper or lower house of the state legislature, and as a result, women don’t have a voice on issues that only women can do justice.”

Under the new BBMP act, at least 50% has been reserved for women. BJP leader R Ashok said that “reservation had to be given, and it was given somewhere”.

“When women are not given opportunities, how do you expect them to grow and bring in leadership? There are very few opportunities in Congress for independent women. Tickets go to someone’s wife, widow, daughter, sister, or relative. Such people don’t speak for women because they come from patriarchy,” said one party worker, requesting anonymity.

Within the Congress, the proposed reservations in the BBMP wards bring some cheer for a section that already nurses a feeling of being overlooked and neglected, particularly after the nominations for the June 3 MLC elections.

“Are women not competent and capable?” Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) general secretary Kavitha Reddy had said in a social media post in May when her party nominated two male candidates to the upper house of the state legislature.

“For the third time in a row, the Karnataka Congress has not given any representation to the women in the legislative council. Even the seats vacated by the women leaders were given to the male leaders. It asks very serious questions...are women not competent or are they taken for granted or are women leaders not required in the party...,” Reddy said in a video that has since been shared widely on social media platforms.

As per the current structure, DK Shivakumar is the state Congress president, and all posts of working presidents are males, leaving little space or opportunity for women.

Currently, the state assembly has just eight women legislators, out of which one is nominated as a representative of the Anglo-Indian community.

Karnataka Congress’s only woman legislator in the upper house was Veena Achaiah, whose term expired on June 14, leaving the party with no women representative.

Woman MLAs in all three parties have expressed their displeasure to their respective leaders, but rarely in public that would further dent their chances of securing a ticket, at least two leaders told HT, requesting anonymity.

“Our party has given us as much representation as it possibly can. Our programmes are more about empowering women,” Shatala Bhat, member of the BJP Mahila Morcha, told HT.

However, she said Morcha is talking to leaders to reconsider the reservation as women barely have any chance of representation within the saffron party aspirants.

Congress has said that it will challenge the BBMP reservation in court.