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BBMP polls: A challenge & opportunity
Gabriel Vaz, Bangalore
AFTER delaying elections to Bangalore city corporation on one pretext or the
other for almost three years, serious efforts are now underway to for holding
them finally. If everything goes according to Karnataka High Court’s orders, the
exercise should be completed by the end of July.
But, that is a big if. Considering the fact that there are too many
imponderables, raising serious doubts about the conduct of polls, one need not
be surprised if the High Court itself might be compelled to order postponement.
Anyway, whether elections are held by next month or delayed by a few months,
they may definitely be held by this year.
The term of the last elected civic body expired in October 2006. But the then H
D Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-BJP coalition regime sought to delay fresh elections
through the ruse of expanding the jurisdiction of the civic body by merging
seven city municipal councils and one town municipal panchayat along with 100
villages adjacent to the state capital to create Greater Bangalore. The
geographical area of city corporation or mahanagara palike increased from 211.60
sq.kms. to 709.53 sq.kms to become Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and
the number of elected representatives was raised to 147 from 100 by amending the
Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976. The population jumped to 58,40,155.
The consequent delimitation of wards and reservation besides restructuring of
the administrative set-up resulted in postponement of elections.
The subsequent `divorce’ of the coalition partners and the inevitable political
turmoil, including imposition of President’s rule, and last year’s assembly
polls along with the just concluded lok sabha elections turned out to be the
convenient excuses of conduct of elections. The intervention of the High Court
and the final ultimatum to complete the exercise by July 2009, offered little
room for procrastination. When it appeared that elections will finally be held,
the B S Yeddyurappa-led BJP regime put a spoke in the wheels by increasing the
number of wards from 147 to 198. Though the governor, Rameshwar Thakur,
initially dithered, he finally promulgated the necessary ordinance to amend the
KMC Act.
When the size of lok sabha and state legislatures has been frozen even after
redoing the delimitation based on 2001 census, one fails to understand the
rationale for increasing the number of wards in BBMP to 198 as the civic body
would have to provide room for some 28 MLAs, 12 lok sabha and rajya sabha
members, 11 MLCs as ex-officio members, 20 nominated members besides
accommodating a large contingent of print and visual media and officials during
the meetings. It is doubtful whether the existing building, which was recently
rebuilt, will suffice or construction of another huge building becomes in
evitable. In addition, the increase in the number of wards would lead to
corresponding increase in staff strength. All this implies additional
expenditure which could better be utilized in improving infrastructure and
services.
And the government, which gave an undertaking to the governor to adhere to the
July-end deadline in order to issue the ordinance, has issued the draft
notification on the delimitation of wards. Against the normal practice of
allowing at least 30 days for filing of objections, the time-limit has been
drastically reduced to 15 days till June 30. Incidentally, delimited wards
provide for fixing the size of electorate in ward which will be around 30,000 in
older or core areas and about 20,000 in newer or peripheral areas. After
examining the objections and taking appropriate action for issue of final
notification on delimitation, the government will have to notify reservation
list of wards for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, backward classes and
women. Even if the entire exercise is carried out post-haste, one can safely
assume that it will be done by the second or third week of July.
The 28 assembly constituencies in and around the city which form part of BBMP
will have wards ranging from one to nine. The constituency-wise break-up of the
number of wards is:
Yelahanka 4, Krishnarajapuram 9, Byatarayanapura 7, Yeshwantpur 5,
Rajarajeshwarinagar 9, Dasarahalli 8, Mahalakshmi Layout 7, Malleshwaram 7,
Hebbal 8, Pulakeshinagar 7, Sarvagnanagar 8, C V Raman Nagar 7, Shivajinagar 7,
Shanthinagar 7, Gandhinagar 7, Rajajinagar 7, Govindarajanagar 9, Vijayanagar 8,
Chamarajpet 7, Chickpet 7, Basavanagudi 6, Padmanabhanagar 8, BTM Layout 8,
Jayanagar 7, Mahadevapura 8, Bommanahalli 8, Bangalore south 7 and Anekal 1.
Whether the State Election Commission, which has a new chief after the
retirement of M R Hegde on June 20, would decide to go in for revision of
electoral rolls allowing an opportunity for deletions, additions or corrections
in view of the large number of complaints during the lok sabha polls or chooses
to follow the rolls of parliamentary polls, conduct of polls by July-end seems
doubtful. Another factor contributing to the uncertainty is the ordinance
enabling use of electoral voting machines (EVMs) in the place of ballot papers
necessitating purchase of news EVMs as those used for lok sabha polls need to be
retained intact for some more time. Also, BBMP polls could be affected if
Central Election Commission announces schedule for hold by-elections to five
assembly constitutions, including Govindarajanagar, Ramanagaram and Channapatna
in and around the city following resignation of the sitting MLAs after lok sabha
polls.
More importantly, the government’s decision to increase to number of wards from
147 to 198, any complaints regarding violation of norms or irregularities in
delimitation and reservation or disparity in the size of electorate in different
wards could provide scope for legal challenges and possible court intervention
leading to delays.
Notwithstanding these doubts, it is certain that elections cannot be delayed
beyond December even if they cannot be held by next month for whatever reason.
And, these elections provide an ideal opportunity for all citizens to choose
their representatives. All political parties, especially the ruling BJP as also
the main opposition parties of Congress and JD(S), have taken the elections not
just as a challenge but an opportunity to wrest control of the civic body. After
its spectacular victory in the just concluded elections, when BJP won three lok
sabha seats in and around the city in Bangalore central, Bangalore south and
Bangalore north leaving the fourth of Bangalore rural to JD(S), the stakes are
too high for the ruling party. Significantly, BJP secured lead over its rivals
in 22 of 28 assembly segments leaving the rest to Congress and zilch for JD(S).
A cursory look at the results in the four lok sabha constituencies of Bangalore
south, Bangalore central, Bangalore north and Bangalore rural, which comprise of
the 28 assembly constituencies that make up BBMP, will help us in a better
understanding of the position. While culling out data pertaining to the votes
polled by the three major parties – BJP, Congress and JD(S) – and other
prominent independent candidates is a time-consuming and tedious task, we will
be able to at least get some idea if we ascertain candidates from which of the
political parties were able to secure how much lead in the 28 constituencies.
The assembly constituency-wise lead position in lok sabha polls, with the name
of the sitting MLA and his party affiliation in brackets, is as follows:
BANGALORE CENTRAL: Sarvagnanagar (K J George – Congress) 19,657 lead for
Congress, C V Raman Nagar (S Raghu – BJP) 7,381 for BJP, Shivajinagar (Roshan
Baig – Congress) 754 lead for BJP, Shanthinagar (N A Harris – Congress) 11,914
lead for BJP, Rajajinagar (S Suresh Kumar – BJP) 21,304 lead for BJP,
Chamarajpet (Z A Zameer Ahmed Khan – JD(S) 13,154 lead for BJP, Gandhinagar (Dinesh
Gundu Rao – Congress) 18,583 lead for BJP, Mahadevapura (Aravind Limbavali – BJP)
9,605 lead for BJP, TOTAL BJP LEAD 35,218;
BANGALORE NORTH: Dasarahalli (Muniraju – BJP) 31,000 lead for BJP, Yeshwanthpur
(Shobha Karandlaje – BJP) 18,511 lead for BJP, Malleshwaram (Dr Aswathnarayana –
BJP) 25,404 lead for BJP, Mahalakshmi Layout (N L Narendra Babu – Congress)
10,909 lead for BJP, Krishnarajapura (Nandish Reddy – BJP) 9,560 lead for BJP,
Byatarayanapura (Krishna Byre Gowda – Congress) 5,371 lead for BJP, Hebbal (Katta
Subramanya Naidu – BJP) 567 lead for Congress, Pulakeshinagar (Prasanna Kumar –
Congress) 40,800 lead for Congress, TOTAL BJP LEAD 59,665;
BANGALORE SOUTH: Govindarajanagar (V Somanna – Congress, who resigned and joined
BJP) 9,109 lead for BJP, Vijayanagar (M Krishnappa – Congress) 2,958 lead for
BJP, Basavanagudi (Ravi Subramanya – BJP) 27,336 lead for BJP, Padmanabhanagar
(R Ashok – BJP) 3,918 lead for BJP, Bommanahalli (Satish Reddy – BJP) 17,230
lead for BJP, B T M Layout (B Ramalinga Reddy –Congress) 9,822 lead for
Congress, Jayanagar (Vijay Kumar –BJP) 7,739 lead for Congress, Chickpet (Dr
Hemanth Kumar –BJP) 9,754 lead for Congress, TOTAL LEAD FOR BJP 28,348;
BANGALORE RURAL: Rajarajeshwari Nagar (M Srinivas – BJP) 12,249 lead for BJP,
Bangalore South (M Krishnappa – BJP) 27,767 lead for BJP, Anekal (M
Narayanaswamy – BJP) 23,060 lead for BJP) (in all the other five assembly
segments which are outside BBMP, JD(S) secured lead); and
CHICKBALLAPUR: Yelahanka (Vishwanath – BJP) 10,083 lead for BJP (the other seven
assembly segments are outside BBMP).
But in civic elections with 20,000 to 30,000 voters, it is clear that political
parties or affiliations do not necessarily matter. It is the candidates and
their record of service and popularity that counts. Even people with no
political backing or money and muscle power can win if they are able to muster
popular support. And, we Christians, can take the elections as a challenge and
opportunity for choose the best candidates, rally behind them and win and
influence people in our respective localities. The large number of our
institutions, our churches, educational and healthcare institutions besides
social service organizations and our networking with our neighbors should
certainly give us additional strength.
Whenever BBMP polls are held, we should chalk out a detailed multi-pronged
action-plan. If there is a revision of electoral rolls, let us strive to ensure
that names of all our family members, relatives, friends and neighbors are
included and subsequently ensure that everybody turns up to vote. Let us avoid
holding any of our family and social functions on the polling date to ensure
nobody refrain from voting. Next, we should identify possible wards where we
have a reasonable prospects of victory and field suitable candidates who can
appeal to our non-Christian neighbors too.
After all, given a polling of around 60 or a maximum of 70% (assuming a very
high turnout) in a ward of around 30,000 voters, it is reasonable to expect a
candidate who can muster 15,000 to 20,000 votes to win effortlessly. Considering
the fact that the ruling BJP as well as Congress and JD(S) would surely strive
to capture a maximum number of seats and even wrest control, it is quite
possible that a non-political candidate capable of mobilizing even 10,000 votes
can hope to score an upset victory. Thus, of the 198 wards, we can easily target
some 25 to 30 seats, if not more, and spend our time, energy and resources for
success.
As we, Catholics or even all Christians put together, are a miniscule minority,
it might be difficult or even impossible to elect representatives to state
legislatures or parliament. But elections to civic and local bodies are a
different ball game, and we can and should be able to stand up, be counted and
make a difference.
Can we treat the ensuing BBMP polls, whether they are held in July or later in
October or November, both as a challenge and opportunity?
For info on BBMP wards visit:
www.bbmpwards.org
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Reader Comments:
Anitha, Bangalore July 1 2009 20:55:37
Many thanks Mr. Vaz for the informative article. |