The presentation of BBMP budget has led to a full-scale infighting among the BJP members in the BBMP council with the party corporators accusing the caretaker Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy of giving in to the Kuruba politics being played by the Congress.
Murthy also belongs to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s Kuruba community. For the last two-and-half months, Murthy has been serving as caretaker Mayor after his tenure ended on April 27 owing to legal hassle in appointing a new Mayor. The government wants to appoint a Mayor from general category while some people have approached the High Court seeking reservation for the Scheduled Tribes. The delay in appointing the Mayor has resulted in delay in tabling the budget.
The BBMP does not have a programme of works even after two-and-half months of the new financial year due to not tabling the budget. The sitting corporators have been insisting that the budget should be tabled at the earliest for its implementation by the end of this year, instead of dumping it to the next year as spillover works.
Murthy has been insisting on presenting the budget for the second consecutive time, which will be a record of sorts as none of his predecessors presented budget for two consecutive years. However, his colleagues in the BJP are opposed to his presenting the budget.
Squabbling
A meeting in this regard took place in the presence of Padmanabhanagar MLA, R Ashoka, where the corporators alleged that the budget Murthy aspires to present will be of Congress party and impressed upon him the need to refrain himself from playing into the hands of Congress party.
The bone of contention of the BJP corporators is that the Congress wanted the budget to be ‘realistic’ with a size of Rs 5,500 crore whereas the BJP corporators wanted it to be as inflated as the previous budgets with a size not less than Rs 10,000 crore. Some BJP corporators even saw Murthy showing a tilt toward Congress and giving in to the ‘Kuruba politics’. Others even saw a plot ready by the Congress government to supercede the BJP dominated BBMP.
A senior BJP functionary aspiring for the post of Mayor, likened Murthy's proposed budget similar to Governor's address to the joint legislature session.
“He will be reading out Congress party's programme of works although the BJP has majority in the BBMP Council. Why should we give the Congress an opportunity to table their budget using a BJP Mayor,” questioned the corporator.
Murthy has announced that he would table the budget on Saturday. However, his party colleagues have asked him to wait till Monday when the High Court will arrive at some conclusion. Repeated attempts to contact Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy to seek his version went in vain. He even did not reply to the messages sent to him.