BENGALURU: With just two days to go for the biennial Legislative Council election for 25 seats from local bodies, questions are now being raised over the voting rights of nominated members in these councils.There are about 290 urban local bodies in the state including town panchayats, town municipal councils, city municipal councils and municipal corporations. Many of them have a provision to have up to 3-5 nominated members in the council and they can participate in the House proceedings.
Election Commission sources told TNIE that in some of the urban local bodies, there are up to five nominated members while some may have just three members and some may not have any nominated members. They all form part of the electoral college. However, questions are now being raised about the voting rights of the nominated members.
Congress MLC and former Bengaluru mayor P R Ramesh, while pointing out that the Town Municipal Councils of Anekal, Attibele and Bommasandra in Bengaluru have five nominated members each, insisted that they cannot be given voting rights in this Council election. He told TNIE that the nominated members are government nominees and giving them voting rights is not fair. The issue is being taken up before the courts on Wednesday, he added.
“They have been sent as advisers to assist the councils. How can they participate in voting? The rules are clear that such nominated members can only participate in deliberations of the municipal council, but they have no voting powers. Even in the House to which they are nominated, they cannot vote,” he contended.
Meanwhile, formal campaigning for the Legislative Council election ended on Tuesday evening and the parties will make the last push before polling on December 10.
There are about 90 candidates in the fray for 25 seats and the BJP and Congress are contesting 20 seats while the JDS is contesting a mere six seats.