Bypolls take the fizz out of BBMP elections

The bypolls to 15 Assembly constituencies, including four from Bengaluru, seem to have cast a shadow on the elections to 12 standing committees in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) scheduled on Wednesday.

The ruling BJP, which took over the reins of the BBMP in October, is aiming to retain all the standing committees for a complete hold on civic administration. Though the BJP and the Congress requested to defer the elections until the bypolls, Regional Commissioner Harsh Gupta has gone ahead with the earlier decision of holding the elections on December 4.

All corporators and MLAs are slugging it out in their respective areas, working overtime to ensure a majority for the Yediyurappa government. The elections to the standing committees also coincide with the last day of campaigning when corporators, MLAs, MLCs and parliamentarians will accompany candidates on a door-to-door campaign, giving the much-awaited polls a miss.

Commenting on the confusion among corporators, Ramalinga Reddy, former minister and Congress MLA from BTM, said, “Corporators and MLAs are likely to be absent due to Assembly election work. If there is no quorum, elections will be deferred. Earlier also, there were instances when polls were deferred by regional commissioners.”

No party has decided on the final candidates for standing committees. However, the names of several corporators, including Shashikala Keshav from Rayapuram (137) ward, Sarala Mahesh from Lakksandra (146) ward, M N Srikanth from Devasandra (55) ward, Gunashekar from Jayamahal (63), Hemalatha from Vrushabhavathi Nagar (102) and Arya Srinivas from Hemmigepura (198) ward are doing the rounds.

According to BBMP officials, the election to the standing committees requires the presence of at least one-third of the total 256 (corporators, MLAs, MLCs, MPs).