Number of voters increases by 8 lakh in BBMP limits

As confusion prevailed over holding elections to the BBMP council, the civic body has completed revising the voters’ list based on the latest delimitation of wards issued by the state government.

The revision has revealed an increase in the number of voting population in the city by eight lakh against the previous revision of the list conducted in 2015.

On Tuesday, the BBMP published the list of ward-wise final electoral rolls and posted the same on its website and that of all the wards. It urged people to visit their ward offices or log on to the website to verify their names and other details.

Based on the 2011 census, the state government issued a draft notification on ward delimitation on March 2 and followed it up with a final notification on June 23.

The state election commission has also asked the BBMP to revise the voters’ list for the BBMP elections 2020 as per the latest delimitation of the wards.

BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad added that citizens can still include their names into the voters’ list until the last day of the nomination. In less than three months of notifying the ward delimitation, the state government amended the Karnataka Municipal Act, 1976, to increase the number of wards from 198 to 243.

This apart, the government has also formed a committee headed by the BBMP commissioner to decide on the ward delimitation.

BBMP sources told DH that the committee has written to the government on the parameters for ward delimitation.

Officials also revealed that if polls were to be held for the 243 wards as suggested in the amendment, the revision work will become invalid.

“If the ward number is increased to 243, we have to prepare the voters’ list afresh,” explained an official attached with the BBMP.

All eyes on HC verdict

Meanwhile, the Karnataka High Court has reserved its judgement on a petition filed by Congress leaders Abdul Wajid and M Shivaraju challenging the government’s decision to defer elections to the BBMP council.

The court’s decision will resolve the prevailing confusion if authorities should hold polls for 198 wards or 243.