BBMP polls: BJP has a clear edge as 1,342 persons vie for 198 seats
by Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network

Bangalore, March 20: After frequent postponements and over three years of delay, elections to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike or Greater Bangalore City Corporation are finally being held on March 28.

The three major political parties, the ruling BJP, Congress and JD(S), the main contenders in the prestigious electoral battle in Karnataka’s capital city, had their share of problems in finalising the names of candidates for all the 198 wards, the process has now been completed. Apart from the candidates belonging to the three parties, those fielded by various civic fronts, pro-Kannada outfits as well as independents have entered the fray.

As if to indicate the keen interest among political parties and civic minded individuals to contest and have a say in running the civic affairs, a total of 3,914 persons had filed their nomination papers for the 198 seats. Of the total number of nominations filed, as many as 2,170 remained in the fray as on March 18. However, on the last day for withdrawal on Friday (March 19), a total of 1,342 candidates remained. Thus, on an average 6 to 7 candidates will be contesting in each of the wards, though the number could be slightly more or less in some of the wards. Of course, a few more candidates might be expected to retire from contest either on their own or persuaded to do so either by their supporters or rival candidates.

Electioneering has already taken off with candidates and their supporters going round the city and embarking on visiting almost every house to woo the voters as hardly a week is left for the D-day.
Though results will be known only on April 5, guessing game has already started and even bets are being placed as who will be able to rule the civic body. While making it clear that the outcome can hardly be termed as a referendum on his 21-month rule, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has gone on record to claim a resounding victory and also predict that the next Mayor will be a BJP man. KPCC chief R V Deshpande and other Congress leaders as well as State JD(S) chief H D Kumaraswamy, however, are confident that they will come up trumps and humble the ruling party.

Local issues as well as the standing of the candidates will be the deciding factors in a civic election, especially among the highly polarized, educated and politically aware voters of Bangalore with the size of electorate in each of the wards ranging from 25,000 to 35,000. Political affiliations may not count for much, though they cannot be completely ignored.

But what is the ground reality? Will the BBMP polls really be a setback for the ruling party, judging by the frequent attempts by the Government to put them off on one pretext or the other and can the Congress and JD(S) really succeed in trouncing BJP?

Let us examine the situation objectively: True, the Government and the ruling party did try their best to put off the polls and had no alternative but to comply when the Supreme Court and High Court declined to play along with their designs. But the Congress and JD(S) are also equally guilty of being partly responsible for the delay.

It was the previous Congress regime that withdrew the power of delimitation of constituencies and fixing the reservation matrix from the State Election Commission, that turned out to be a major stumbling block. Subsequently, the Congress-JD(S) coalition regime sought to delay the polls when the term of the elected civic body expired on November 26, 2006.

Even later, when JD(S) entered into a coalition experiment with BJP, the elections were not held. On the contrary, the BBMP was created by merging seven city municipal councils, one town panchayat along with 100 villages around the city and increasing the civic body’s strength from 100 to 147 necessitating further delay in view of delimitation and reservation of wards. Even later, when the state was under President’s Rule following the break in the JD(S)-BJP coalition experiment, the Congress party could have taken steps to hold the BBMP polls if it was really keen as the UPA regime in Delhi was under its control. The BJP, however, went a step further and increased the civic body’s size from 147 to 198 leading to further delays.

Having established that none of the three main political parties cannot really blame each other for delaying BBMP polls, let us consider why the elections are of such crucial importance. For one, the size of total population of about a crore in BBMP is roughly a little more than the state’s total. Also, BBMP’s annual budget of roughly Rs 8,000 to 10,000 crore is more or less a third of the state’s approved annual plan size of Rs 31,050 crore.

In addition, the strength of the civic body comprising 198 elected members, 20 nominated members, 28 MLAs, 11 MLCs and 12 Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha members is a whopping 269 or more than that of the State Legislative Assembly. Thus, the civic body assumes importance in terms of total population, annual budget as also size.

The ruling party, therefore, would naturally like to leave no stone unturned to wrest control the civic body as it will be a feather in its cap. The Congress and JD(S) have taken it as a matter of prestige to humble the BJP in its citadel as it were considering the fact that the educated and urban voters are normally viewed as the latter’s staunch supporters.

BJP, recovering from a bout of serious dissidence and factional feuds, is determined to emerge as a cohesive force while the Congress and JD(S) are determined to exploit the chinks the saffron armour to their advantage. JD(S) is also counting on exploiting its sway over the Vokkaliga-dominated rural pockets of Bangalore, especially in the newly added city outskirts, on account of its pro-farmer campaign and the relentless battle against the land acquisitions for NICE promoted Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project.

Yeddyurappa and BJP, are, however, confident of getting a resounding mandate from the discerning Bangaloreans mainly on account of the plethora of unprecedented developmental works and infrastructure projects being implemented in different parts of the city over the last 21 months. Road works, Metro Rail project, Flyovers, Underpasses, Overbridges, Drinking Water projects and a host of other civic infrastructure initiatives have been given impetus that should alter the face of Bangalore in the next couple of years and these should really benefit the ruling party, claims Yeddyurappa. Even though one might argue that the previous Governments had launched or conceived most of the initiatives, nobody can deny the fact the pace of implementation and allocation of funds gained momentum during the BJP regime.

With the ruling party controlling most of the assembly segments in and around the city or wooing influential leaders from other parties into its fold, who need to deliver to prove their worth and climb up the ladder, it is reasonable to expect the BJP to reap electoral dividends in the BBMP polls. All said and done, it is the caliber, stature and record of service or mass following enjoyed by the candidates that can tilt the scales in a closely fought election where the margin of victory could be as narrow as a few hundred or even thousand votes. This is more so, in view of the uncertainty on the timing of the BBMP polls, which affects almost all parties and candidates equally.

By all accounts, the choice of candidates in BJP has been smooth and without much rancor as compared to the infighting and open revolt in Congress and even JD(S). But field reports indicate that rebel candidates are more in Congress than in BJP, which apparently has succeeded in pacifying the disappointed aspirants with promises of positions in Boards and Corporations. The shorter duration for electioneering and the availability of resources with sufficient manpower should surely help the ruling party candidates than its rivals.

 Thus, BJP seems to be having a clear edge and may not need the cushion of extra votes from nominated members, MLAs, MLCs and MPs as ex-officio members to wrest control of the civic body.