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Hold BBMP polls by December end: Karnataka high court to state EC
The Karnataka high court (HC) on Friday directed the state election commission to conduct the civic body — Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) — elections by December end this year
The Karnataka high court (HC) on Friday directed the state election commission to conduct the civic body — Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) — elections by December end this year.
The high court set aside the state government’s reservation list for Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike announced in August this year.
“...I have not received the entire order but based on the information I have received... the honourable high court in its order...we have been asked to do it by December,” state revenue minister R Ashok said.
He said that the HC has also asked that the rectifications in ward-wise reservations be done at the earliest.The court directed that a fresh list has to be prepared before November 30. The government had announced the draft list on August 3 and notified it on August 16. Several petitions were filed in the HC challenging this notification.
The HC order comes at a time when the the Basavaraj Bommai-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state has been accused of delaying he BBMP elections in Bengaluru as any upset in the same is likely to have a bearing on the upcoming assembly polls next year.
With 28 assembly constituencies, Bengaluru, is one of the important districts in Karnataka.
Under the new BBMP Act, the existing number of wards were increased from 198 to 243 and ward-wise reservation lists were drawn up among other exercises , all of which attracted sharp criticism from the opposition parties.
The BJP-led state government has been under fire from all quarters for the civic apathy in Bengaluru, especially after the recent floods which inundated several localities.
Earlier, the BBMP elections were held at least three years before the assembly polls but after the state insisted on the ward-wise reservation this time, there was a delay in the polls.
Even a few BJP leaders are apprehensive about conducting the polls as many of them are not confident of the outcome this time. “The more time passes, the more number of MLAs will oppose to conducting the polls,” a three-term BJP legislator from Bengaluru said, who did not want to be named.
The BBMP has remained without an elected council since September 2020. During the Covid-19 pandemic and the floods, the city was left with no local representation, adding to the hardships of the residents in India’s IT capital.
The BJP government has also not conducted the zilla and taluka panchayat elections as this will help gauge the mood of the grassroot level workers in rural Karnataka before the polls.
The BJP has been in power at the BBMP from 2010 till September 2020 but this has not deterred the party from blaming the Congress for the mess during its rule between 2013-18 in the state.
“Whatever responsibilities were given to BBMP to conduct the elections, we are doing it in a timely manner. Our voter list, review, the ward-wise reservation list is ready and we have started the work. Moving of voters and objections have been already addressed and were finalised on Thursday. Our voter list is ready,” BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Girinath said.
He said that the ward-wise reservation list was done by the state government but clarified that there were no changes made to the number of voters as it has been done based on the list prepared for assembly and Lok Sabha elections. However, there are still several legal entanglements which continue to cast a cloud of uncertainty on conducting the polls.
“We will have to see how the (BJP) government will give OBC (other backward classes) reservations as we also do not understand how it has been done so far. The government did not accept the Kantharaju report. Several pleas have been filed in the court over how the delimitations and reservations were done,” senior Congress leader and working president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Ramaligna Reddy said.
In 2015, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government had commissioned a team-led by H Kantharaju, former chairman, Karnataka Backward Classes Commission (KBCC), to conduct a socio-economic and educational survey, popularly known as the ‘caste census’.
Reddy said out of the 97 wards that come under the assembly constituencies of Congress and one Janata Dal (Secular) legislator, 76 have been reserved for women. And out of the 65 wards that are categorised as general, 45 were in the constituencies of the BJP MLAs.
Similarly, according to the draft notification of the state government, nearly half of the total 243 seats will be reserved for OBCs, SCs and STs. The breakup is as follows: 81 seats have been reserved for OBCs, while 28 have been reserved for SCs and four for STs. The remaining 130 seats will be occupied by general category candidates. Women will be taking up half of the total seats.
Reddy and several others have objected to the unscientific delimitation exercise and the reservation that “does not represent the population but instead favours the BJP”.
With Agency Inputs
