GBA polls: Task cut out for Congress to loosen BJP’s urban hold

The Congress is looking to break the BJP’s hold over the city with the ruling party having started preparations to face elections to five municipal corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA). 

These elections, which are likely next year, will be the first in Bengaluru since 2015 when the BJP won 100 out of 198 wards of the erstwhile BBMP.  

The BJP has maintained an upper hand in Bengaluru. It won 16 out of 28 Assembly seats in 2023 and all three Lok Sabha segments last year. 

Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala has already held talks with party leaders on identifying candidates. 

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, the minister in charge of Bengaluru, has deputed six ministers - Krishna Byre Gowda (Bengaluru East), B S Suresha (Byrathi) (Bengaluru West), K J George (Bengaluru North), Ramalinga Reddy (Bengaluru South), Dinesh Gundu Rao and Zameer Ahmed Khan (Bengaluru Central) - to oversee the party’s preparedness. 

“In every ward, we have up to 10 ticket aspirants,” government chief whip Saleem Ahmed, incharge of the Mahalakshmi Layout constituency, told DH.

“Our government’s performance and the five ‘guarantee’ schemes will be most important. People are happy. We’re doing our best for the city’s development despite noncooperation from the union government,” he said. 

Sources said Shivakumar is planning to fix Rs 1 lakh as application fees for ticket aspirants.

This is to ensure only serious candidates apply, a practice he started with the 2023 Assembly polls. 

The Opposition BJP has chalked out its own plan to face the GBA polls. A meeting was held recently with BJP national general secretary Dr Radha Mohan Das Agrawal. 

“We’ve had preliminary meetings. Constituency-wise teams will be formed in the days to come,” BJP state president B Y Vijayendra told DH. 

The saffron party is planning to woo voters by highlighting the city’s crumbling infrastructure under the Congress government. 

“Our campaign will be centered around ‘Dubari Bengaluru’ where everything, except air, is taxed while infrastructure is zero,” BJP’s Bengaluru North president S Harish, a former deputy mayor, said.