BBMP standing panel chiefs selection put off

BANGALORE:  Lack of consensus among city BJP MLAs and councillors in the BBMP Council resulted in the postponement of the selection of the chairpersons of the 12 standing committees on Thursday.

The selection did not take place as there were a lot of contenders for the posts. The ruling party leaders had a tough time in naming the chairpersons of various committees. With no consensus, the elections were put off to Friday.

BJP MLAs literally fought and alleged to have used  ‘unparliamentary’ words at the council meeting held at the BBMP head office. The Selection Committee, comprising Bangalore Urban District In-charge Minister R Ashok, Jayanagar MLA B N Vijayakumar, BJP City Unit President Subbanna and BJP District Unit President Sachidananda faced a difficult time. The BJP legislators wanted their men to be in important panels.

According to sources, though BJP had finalised the list of members and chairpersons, a few MLAs wanted the ‘plum’ committee for their councillors as Assembly elections are ahead. MLAs from Mahadevapura (Aravind Limbavali), Bommanahalli (Satish Reddy), Yelahanka (S R Vishwanath), K R Puram (N S Nandish Reddy) and Raja Rajeshwarinagar (M  Srinivas) fought in favour of their supporters.

Srinivas went a step ahead and was almost successful in getting his son, Venkatesh Babu, a councillor from Kottigepalya ward, for the chairman’s post of the Standing Committee on Public Health, the source said.

On the other hand, Minister Ashok looked helpless as he appeared to have failed in taking the city MLAs and councillors into confidence despite holding the key post. A visibly upset Ashok was found venting out his anger at the councillors. Later, the high drama moved to Ashok’s residence, the sources said.