BENGALURU: With the Supreme Court directing the state government to complete the reservation exercise within a week, officials have set the ball in motion to conduct the municipal council elections. A senior government official, not wanting to be named, said the long-delayed exercise of holding Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council elections is likely to be announced by August-end or September first week. The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the state government to complete the reservation exercise for elections in a week’s time.
“Once the apex court orders are issued, there is no other option. The city has been running for very long without corporators. Filing an appeal will not take us anywhere. We need corporators and the city has been waiting for it. This was, in fact, the suggestion of most of the citizens when they filed their objections during the delimitation exercise,” a senior BBMP official said. Officials said they will try their best to complete the reservation exercise in a week’s time, keeping former corporators of all parties and citizens in mind.
After this, the reservation will be sent to the government for approval, and placed before the public for objections. Once finalised, it will be sent to the Election Commission. EC officials said they were ready for elections, and that as per earlier SC directions, election dates should be announced in the ninth week after delimitation is completed.
Former Congress corporator and opposition leader in the BBMP council Abdul Wajid (who is also one of the petitioners) said even as the government tried all methods to postpone the elections, the delimitation draft is completed, so elections should be held. Srinivas Alavilli, civic head, participation, Janagraaha, said one week is enough to complete reservation and publish it. “Compared to delimitation, this is a smaller exercise. If some one is not happy, then after five years, things can be changed.”
Party leaders do groun dwork: R ashoka
Revenue Minister R Ashoka said that as per Supreme Court orders, the government is ready for elections. There is no fear and many meetings have also been held at the booth and ward level. The party workers and leaders have done all the ground work. The election date will be fixed soon and all the required works will be done by the government. He added that he will also discuss the same with the CM.