BENGALURU: The State Government on Friday informed the Legislative Council that it wants to hold elections to local bodies soon with reservation for Other Backward Communities (OBCs) and it has asked the Panchayat Raj Delimitation Committee, which is tasked with redrawing zilla and taluk panchayat boundaries, to submit its report at the earliest.
Replying to a question by JDS MLC Marithibbegowda, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister K S Eshwarappa said the government intends to hold the elections soon, but wants the reservation for OBCs to stay.
“The Chief Minister has discussed the matter with legal experts. Also, the Panchayat Raj Delimitation Committee is yet to submit its report. Once the report is submitted, we will initiate further process to hold the elections,” the minister said. He noted that the government had written to the Election Commission earlier to hold the ZP-TP polls, but had received 888 objections against the delimitation.
Opposition leader B K Hariprasad asked him to consider the Kantharaj committee report and submit it to the Supreme Court, which had ruled holding elections without reservations for OBCs, but only for SCs and STs.
In response, Eshwarappa targeted former CM Siddaramaiah. “When I was the opposition leader, I repeatedly requested then CM Siddaramaiah to submit the report, but he didn’t. He cheated the OBCs,” Eshwarappa said, adding that the government was also considering the Kantharaj committee report and whether its data was useful now.