BBMP poll or not, ticket seekers make beeline for leaders’ hotels

Belagavi: ‘Chalo Belagavi’ is the buzzword among ticket aspirants for the BBMP polls even as ministers and Bengaluru MLAs decided to stay back in Belagavi due to the uncertainty over the elections. The state government has approached the apex court with the plea that the polls be held based on the 2011 census and not the 2001 census.

Due to pressure from ticket aspirants, Bengaluru in-charge minister Ramalinga Reddy and BJP city MLAs have advised the ticket aspirants to return to Bengaluru as the government is looking to a favourable verdict by the apex court on the issue.

BJP member in the Legislative Council, Ashwathnarayana said there are two categories of ticket aspirants in Belagavi lobbying for tickets to contest the BBMP elections. One category of ticket aspirants are lobbying for tickets for their wives and relatives due to the change of reservation category in their respective wards. The second category wants the government to change the delimitation and announce a new reservation list. If the apex court grants a stay as pleaded by the government, they want to contest for a second time, Mr. Ashwathnarayana said.

Ticket aspirants from Congress, BJP and JD(S) have queued up in the hotel premises of their respective leaders in Belagavi. Since ministers are staying in Eefa Hotel, the ticket aspirants of Congress had thronged this hotel, giving a memorandum to the Bengaluru in-charge minister and Congress city MLAs.

The BJP city MLAs are staying in Sanman and Ramadev hotels and ticket aspirants have lined up at these two hotels since three days, said sources. A senior minister told this newspaper that he had told the aspirants to go back to Bengaluru and their grievances would be heard after the Belagavi session ends.

The government is hopeful of getting a stay on the polls for at least for two months. The special leave petition(SLP) was filed by the Karnataka State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes but the state government is backing the petition and has deputed Supreme Court senior Counsel Fali Nariman to defend the SLP, said sources.