Election fever seems to have finally descended on the city, with aspirants of various political parties intensifying their campaigns ahead of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections scheduled on August 22. Whether they were riding on bikes or conducting door-to-door meetings with citizens, party workers and candidates were out on the streets sporting party colours.
Several citizens’ groups too are gearing up for the polls. Many groups have begun meeting with aspirants to discuss their manifestos and the agenda for ward development.
R.K. Mishra, urban expert and member of BBMP’s Technical Advisory Committee, said that many candidates were coming forward voluntarily to interact with citizens. The Federation of Residents’ Welfare Associations, Communities and Enterprises (FORCE) of Greater Whitefield, which represents several apartments and communities in the area, was reaching out to citizens. “After interacting with the aspirants, we will come to a decision on who is the best candidate to represent us. If citizens have continuous engagement with the elected representatives, they are not likely to ignore their problems,” he said.
Kathyayini Chamaraj from Citizens’ Voluntary Initiative for the City (CIVIC) said that the organisation is urging citizens not to vote for dummy women candidates. “The various parties have fielded women who have no record of social engagement. The purpose of increasing women’s reservation is not served. The parties should have chosen women party workers… instead, women of merit are being ignored,” she said.
Concurring, Hemanth Kumar, convener of Bangalore Development Committee, said that the spirit of women professionals and achievers of the city was not being represented. “We wanted to field 198 women in all the wards. But due to paucity of time, we were able to get only around 30 women to file nominations,” he said.
Election expenditure not declared
The State Election Commission has released a list of 30 candidates who failed to declare their election expenditure incurred during the 2010 elections. This list has been forwarded to all ROs, who have been instructed to not accept nominations from these candidates. Following this, the nominations of two aspirants from Pulikeshinagar were rejected, sources said.
