‘BBMP ward quotas are lawful’

Higher Education Minister CN Ashwath Narayan on Saturday defended the government’s ward-wise reservation for Bengaluru as “lawful” and claimed that the Congress fears defeat in the civic body polls.

“The process we have followed in the BBMP is lawful. If there’s any violation of law, let (Congress) show. We’re ready for the BBMP elections. It is the Congress that seems to have conceded defeat,” Narayan, the Malleswaram MLA, told a news conference at the BJP office here.

He was responding to Congress lawmakers crying foul over the government’s reservation for the 243 municipal wards of the city.

Narayan said the BJP government enacted a new law to govern Bengaluru. “The delimitation of wards was done based on court order. The government has taken steps to find solutions to problems” .

“There was a need to review reservation. Reservation was finalised for 243 wards by a committee. Reservation has been fixed at 50% for OBC, SC and ST. There’s 50% reservation for general category and 50% for women. There is a provision to file objections, if any,” Narayan said.

“We kept the whole of Bengaluru as one unit to fix reservation for 243 wards. There was no provision to keep an Assembly constituency as a unit,” he pointed out.

Narayan also condemned the Congress for staging a protest outside the Urban Development Department office at Vikas Soudha. Government chief whip and BJP secretary M Satish Reddy, the Bommanahalli MLA, accused the Congress of being anti-women. “During the 2015 BBMP polls, (Chamrajpet MLA) Zameer Ahmed Khan did not speak about women representation. Why is he speaking now?” Reddy asked.

“Similarly, former minister Ramalinga Reddy gave more opportunities for women in the last election. Still, our party won. Instead of welcoming reservation provided for women, the Congress is opposing it,” he said.

Reddy quoted a survey to say that the BJP would win over 150 seats out of 243 in the BBMP polls. “The Congress’ sole agenda is to postpone the elections,” he charged.