Indicating that BBMP elections won’t be held for the 243 wards carved out during the BJP’s tenure, the Congress government on Monday requested the Karnataka High Court for additional time to redo the delimitation exercise on the grounds that it was unscientific. The court granted 12 weeks’ time.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale passed the order directing the government to redo the exercise “in strict adherence to law”. The bench was hearing an appeal that challenged a single-bench order dated September 16, 2022. The court also directed the government to submit a compliance report.
The appeal was filed by B N Manjunatha Reddy and three others after their writ petition challenging the July 14, 2022 delimitation notification was dismissed by the single bench. The appellants said the bench failed to take note of the fact that the division of wards was irregular and disproportionate. According to them, the delimitation committee committed glaring errors.
The appeal contended that the exercise was disproportionate to population, resulting in lesser number of voters in some wards than others within an Assembly segment. They also said that major roads, storm water drains and railway tracks were unscientifically split.
Advocate General K Shashikiran Shetty requested for some time to redo the delimitation exercise.
Delay in polls
The government’s stand on delimitation is likely to further delay the BBMP poll, which has been on hold for two and a half years. It also goes against its recent public stand, where eight-term MLA and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, who was the head of the Congress’ internal committee, approved holding BBMP polls as per the 243 wards.
“Congress lawmakers want the election to be held soon,” Reddy had said after meeting Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and others. “Everybody wants the polls to be held early, after the monsoon, by November. We can’t go back to 198 wards. The new law has already come into effect. It says there can be up to 250 wards and the previous (BJP) government fixed it at 243,” Reddy had said.
It is learnt that the decision to challenge the delimitation was taken at a meeting held at a private hotel recently. It had snowballed into a controversy as two senior IAS officers were present in the meeting hall where Congress leader Surjewala was seen.