JOIN USBBMP standing panel polls put off for lack of quorum
The elections to 12 standing committees of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were postponed because of a lack of quorum on Wednesday.
Bengaluru Regional Commissioner Harsh Gupta had scheduled the elections for December 4, a day before the tenure of the existing standing committees ends.
The BBMP council has 256 members, including corporators, MLAs, MLCs and parliamentarians (both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha). The standing committee elections require the presence of one-third of the members. The quorum was 86. But only 12 members, mostly senior corporators, turned up for the elections. Some corporators left soon after entering the polling venue.
What’s more, no corporator filed the nomination. All of them were busy with byelections to four assembly constituencies in the city scheduled for Thursday. The polling venue was shifted to Town Hall because the BBMP head office, where the elections were scheduled previously, falls under the Shivajinagar assembly constituency, which will face the byelection.
Harsh Gupta kick-started the election proceedings but quickly postponed it, citing a lack of quorum. Speaking to reporters later, he said that while the elections were postponed, the existing members of the standing committees will have no power or authority until new polls are held.
According to the officer, the circular for the standing committee elections has to be issued a week in advance. Since the assembly byelections will be declared on December 9, a fresh list of BBMP council members has to be prepared, he added.
“We will work it out and hold the elections at a future date,” he said.