Why Nobody is Genuinely Interested in BBMP Polls ?
by Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network

Bangalore, Feb 23: If the elections to Karnataka’s capital city, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) or Greater Bangalore City Corporation Council, were held on time as mandated under the 73rd Constitution Amendment known as the Nagarapalika law ushered in during the Rajiv Gandhi era with great fanfare, an elected body of city corporators would have almost completed their full term.

But, unfortunately, neither the ruling party nor the opposition political parties seemed to be genuinely interested in having the elections which should have been taken up before the expiry of the previous term or, to be precise, well before November 2006. Thus, if the constitutional mandate had been scrupulously followed, the term of the BBMP civic body would have been completed by November 2011.

Going by the present trend and stalling tactics adopted by the ruling BJP, which is moving back and forth from High Court to Supreme Court and finding or rather inventing excuses after excuses to delay the elections and if the courts allow the B S Yeddyurappa regime to continue with its delaying tactics, it is no wonder if the elections get continuously postponed.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court of India, which once indirectly allowed the Yeddyurappa regime to delay the elections by sending the issue back to the state High Court, has firmly decided not to intervene and has virtually directed the government to be done with the elections once and for all – even if it means delaying the annual school/college examinations.

But the Yeddyurappa-led BJP regime, which will be completing its second year in office in May, appears to be thick-skinned. It is still trying to stall the elections and might yet approach the High Court seeking time to delay the polls at least till June. It remains to be seen whether the High Court agrees to play ball with the ruling party’s sinister designs to delay the elections.

This is not to suggest that BJP alone is to be blamed for the inordinate delay in holding the BBMP polls. Almost all political parties of Karnataka are equally responsible for the delay and have contributed their bit.

In November 2006, when the term of the last civic body expired and fresh elections were due, the H D Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-BJP coalition regime was ruling the state. Naturally, therefore, both parties were equally responsible for not ensuring that the polls were held on time as mandated by the Constitution.

The Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-BJP coalition regime adopted the tactic of increasing the size of the civic body by including the adjoining seven municipal councils and surrounding villages and make the state capital into Greater Bangalore or BBMP. The total strength of the city fathers was enhanced to 148. The consequent need for fresh delimitation of wards and reservation, naturally, resulted in delay.

In fact, even before Kumaraswamy occupied the chief ministerial gaddi, the previous Congress rulers had ensured that the powers vested in the State Election Commission for determining the reservation of wards was withdrawn and assumed by the government.

Though the move was done with the ulterior motive of changing the reservation of wards to improve the ruling party’s electoral prospects based on the local ground situation, caste composition and such other factors, it also provided a handy tool to the government to delay the elections. Apart from creating confusion over reservation and forcing the political parties or aggrieved persons to seek legal redressal, the ruling party also got an opportunity for deliberately making some mistakes in the reservation of wards and thereby provide an ideal opportunity for legal intervention.

But after the political tussel over the refusal of JD(S) to keep its promise on transfer of power to BJP and the consequent dissolution of the state assembly as well as imposition of President’s rule, the Congress-led UPA regime in Delhi could have taken steps to ensure that elections to BBMP were held as dictated by the Constitution through its nominee in Raj Bhavan. Coming back to power in Vidhana Soudha was more important for everybody, and naturally the hot potato of BBMP polls were left to the next government to tackle.

Though BJP came to power and Yeddyurappa became chief minister on the saffron brigade’s own strength – just three short of a simple majority – conducting BBMP polls was relegated to the background because the ruling party was busy in improving its strength through ``Operation Lotus.” Then came the all important lok sabha polls and nobody was really interested in getting sidetracked by the BBMP polls. After the lok sabha polls when UPA returned to power with increased strength in Delhi and BJP or the third front were routed at the national level, BJP and Yeddyurappa were safe in the state. In fact, BJP fared better in Bangalore city, urban and rural districts, which should have prompted the party to hold the polls.

BJP, however, had other ideas. It increased the strength of BBMP council from 148 to 198 ostensibly to wrest control of the civic body but in reality to get the polls delayed. The subsequent developments and the frequent mess-up in the delimitation of wards and reservation exercise is all too fresh in the minds of everybody to be repeated.

The BJP, apparently, believes that it is not as strong as the assembly-lok sabha election results seem to suggest – at least in the city. The recent bitter infighting and the disgruntlement within the ruling party and the growing strength of JD(S) in the Vokkaliga dominated regions in the city outskirts and Bangalore rural, especially in all the newly added areas, which incidentally are covered by various land acquisition procedures or the controversial Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project of JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda’s arch enemy Ashok Kheny, is another cause for serious concern. The series of attacks against Churches and minorities ever since the BJP came to power and the perceived affinity of the minorities and Dalits-backward classes towards Congress has also made the BJP men vary in a civic body election involving a smaller voter base, as a swing of even a few thousands or hundreds of voters, could tilt the scales. Coupled with all these factors and the disarray within the ruling party ranks, the bitter power struggle-infighting with possible open or backdoor tie-up between Congress and JD(S) seems to have completely unnerved BJP, forcing the party to find excuses after excuses to delay the BBMP polls.

The Karnataka High Court will be forced to finally decide on setting a definite time-frame for holding the BBMP polls as the apex court has directed the state government to go before it, while refusing to honour its prayers for granting a temporary reprieve. When the matter comes up before the High Court, probably next week, the fate of BBMP polls would be decided.  The ensuing budget session of state legislature, the examinations for SSLC/College students and the local body elections to Grama Panchayats covering the entire state are some of the factors that may come in the way of holding the elections.

It is, therefore, better to keep ones fingers crossed as far as BBMP elections are concerned.