Palike polls may cost Rs 27 crore

Following the Karnataka High Court directions to hold the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike elections before May 30, the State Election Commissioner (SEC) P N Srinivasachari gave a slew of instructions to the BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana on Monday.

The SEC held a meeting with Lakshminarayana and joint commissioners of Palike about the measures to be taken for holding the elections.

After the meeting, Srinivasachari told Deccan Herald: “If the State government could restructure the BBMP before April 13 then the elections will be held accordingly or else delimitation will not be done and elections will be held as per the existing arrangement.”

He added that an assessment of the election expenditure suggest that at least Rs 27 crore was required to conduct elections which requires voting at 7,000-odd polling stations. At least 21,000 personnel will be required for the purpose. The Palike with the help of police has to list out the sensitive and hyper-sensitive polling stations in the City. Electoral roll also needs to be prepared.

The SEC also directed Lakshminarayana to hold a meeting with returning officers and assistant returning officers on Wednesday.

The High Court on Monday directed the State government and SEC to complete the entire electoral process before May 30. The court had directed the government to publish the notification regarding rotation of reservation category for all seats on or before April 13.
 Justice B V Nagarathna had ordered that if the government does not publish the list by April 13, the SEC can proceed with the polls based on the existing delimitation of wards and updated electoral rolls.

The orders were passed on a petition filed by two corporators C K Ramamurthy and B Somashekhar of the BJP who approached the court as no action was taken by the government and SEC to hold polls despite the tenure of the BBMP Council scheduled to end on April 22.