A shot in the arm for BJP ahead of BBMP elections

BJP supporters distribute sweets and burst firecrackers near the party’s state headquarters in Malleswaram to celebrate its victoryin the assembly bypolls on Monday. dh photos/ranju p and anup ragh t

The assembly bypoll results would prove a shot in the arm for the BJP which took control of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) just a few months ago.

By winning three more assembly seats in the city, the ruling party has received a confidence booster ahead of the BBMP elections next September. With victories in Yeshwantpur, KR Puram and Mahalakshmi Layout, the BJP has won 14 out of the 27 assembly seats in the city. But the thin victory margins mean that it cannot rest on its laurels and forget the development of the city.

The Congress party has 13 MLAs from the city and the JD(S) one.

While the BJP is hopeful that the bypoll results will help it win the BBMP polls, the Congress party believes the local body elections are an open race as they are still 10 months away.

BTM Layout MLA Ramalinga Reddy said it was premature to say anything about the BBMP polls. “Anything can happen in the coming days. We have to wait and watch,” he added.

With Bengaluru likely to get seven cabinet ministers, the BBMP polls will be a litmus test for the BJP. Several leaders within the BJP have asked Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to carefully choose the Bengaluru development minister or keep the portfolio with himself given the city’s importance.

Yediyurappa acknowledged as much when he pledged to make Bengaluru a model city in the coming days. Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayana echoed him:

“The bypoll results are an indication of what lies ahead for the BJP. We are confident of replicating the success in the BBMP.”

Ashwath Narayan said that once elections to the BBMP standing committees got over, all the MLAs would sit together and decide on programmes for the city’s development.

State Capital Region

Many BJP leaders want the government to form a State Capital Region (SCR) comprising Bengaluru and a 25-30 km radius around it, on the lines of the National Capital Region (NCR), to ensure the overall development of the city.

Declaring that the BJP would win the BBMP polls with a “thumping majority”, Lehar Singh Siroya, a party MLC from the city, said that other major cities in the country had reached saturation point and that only Bengaluru had the potential for potential growth. “The government must declare an SCR. This would help create better infrastructure.”