The term of the current council of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will end on September 10. While the state election commission (SEC) should have announced fresh elections by now, the process is likely to be delayed due to the rising number of coronavirus cases.
BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad on Tuesday said the process of preparing fresh electoral rolls would begin from August 20 and go on till October 19. Only after this will the SEC be able to conduct the elections. The SEC in May had to postpone elections to 6,025 gram panchayats in the state even though most of their tenures were ending between June and August.
"The election commission can announce council elections and we need to prepare for it. Our officers will undergo a five-day training programme starting August 20; they will also do a door-to-door survey and the process to prepare a fresh voter list will be completed by October 19 and by November 30 the whole process will be complete," said Prasad.
The opposition Congress, which had challenged the postponement of the gram panchayat polls in the Karnataka High Court, says the government doesn't intend to conduct these elections at all.
"The government first needs to submit in court the revised delimitation of wards and after that prepare a fresh voter list. The government had also proposed a revised KMC Act, which also needs approval," said Abdul Wajid, Leader of Opposition in BBMP. "So as of today, I don't think any preparation with regards to election has started. If the work begins, it is good. Else the government will have to appoint an administrator to look into the functioning of the BBMP."
Meanwhile, Jayanagar MLA Sowmya Reddy hit out at the BJP government for branding kits being distributed to Covid-19 patients with images of local corporators promoting them for the upcoming elections. Reddy said the colours and names used in the packaging are a blatant misuse of the Rs 20 lakh allocated per ward.
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