The move of the State government to apparently stall the elections to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike in the garb of trifurcating the jurisdiction of the civic body has not found favour with either the political parties or the Karnataka High Court, thus far, compelling the government to summon a special session of the State legislature to call the shots.
Ironically, this step may also not yield results in quick time since Governor Vajubhai R. Vala, who a week ago rejected an ordinance sought to be promulgated by the government, may either delay granting his assent to the Bill or may forward it to the President for approval. In other words, it is a touch-and-go situation for the incumbent government in what could be stated as an attempt to avoid elections to the civic body.
It is quite evident that the incumbent government, similar to the strategy pursued by the coalition government of H.D. Kumaraswamy and that of B.S. Yeddyurappa in the past, is doing its best to postpone the elections. It is common knowledge that the government is keen on postponing the elections since an adverse result will go against it, more so, since an electoral battle in the State capital will be viewed as a referendum on the incumbent government.
Meanwhile, as mandated, the government has also set forth the election process by publishing the roster list specifying the reservations for the 198 wards forming part of the BBMP. The palike was constituted by an Act of the State legislature in 2007 and credit should go to the coalition government of H.D. Kumaraswamy for forming the BBMP with the merger of seven city municipal councils and a town municipal council, all adjoining Bangalore, with the erstwhile Bangalore Mahanagara Palike.
In one shot, the area under the Bangalore municipality increased from about 350 sq. km to over 800 sq. km and the municipal council comprised nearly 240 members with 198 of them directly elected by the people and the others nominated by the government of the day or elected to the Karnataka legislature or the two Houses of Parliament from Bangalore city-based constituencies.
The performance of the BBMP over the years has taken a severe beating, more so, over the last five years during the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which won the maximum number of seats in the first round of elections held to the BBMP council in March 2010.
For a sprawling city like Bengaluru, the total revenue generated is around Rs. 4,000 crore, including the grants provided by the Union and State governments. The present pending bills before the BBMP is much more than the revenue that it generates in a year.
In all likelihood, the problem in holding elections is likely to get further compounded following the ire of some of the likely candidates over the reservation list. Added to this is the reservation of 50 per cent of the seats for women — 99 of the 198 wards from the earlier 33 per cent reservation for women. This is another straw which the government can hold on to stall the elections given the fact that this is another matter which is before the court.
(The writer is Resident Representative, The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Bengaluru)
