Bengaluru: The final ward-wise reservation list for the BBMP polls was announced in the last minute during the last elections giving little time for interested candidates to prepare themselves for the elections.
Now with BBMP elections just a year away, citizen groups and activists have already started demanding the Karnataka State Election Commission to release the ward-wise reservation list at least 6 months prior to the polls so that candidates without political backing can check their eligibility and make necessary preparations. In this regard, a delegation from citizen’s group B.PAC met Bharthi D, Secretary of State Election Commission and submitted a request to ensure that the notification on reservation rotation process for BBMP wards be announced in advance.
Speaking to DC, Revathi Ashok, CEO of B.PAC said “In the last election in 2015, the reservation list was announced at the last minute and the candidates had only 15 days’ time to campaign. Even citizens didn’t have enough time to know their candidates and arrive at making the informed choice.”
She said as the list is being announced at the last minute, political parties are getting benefited as they can sell their party tickets to the ones who pay them more money or pick candidates within their party who can win.
“But those who really wish to work for people will be in confusion till the last minute, as they will not know whether they can contest in a specific ward or even start campaigning etc and even the voter will not have much information about the candidate before him to decide to vote for” Revathi explained.
Sharing his opinion on announcing the reservation list, Srinivas Alavilli, co-founder of Citizen’s for Bengaluru which led the Steel flyover protests and fought for setting up ward committees said, “In fact, the list should be announced at least 12 months in advance.”
On issues faced by genuine candidates who do not have the money or muscle or party backing, he said “If the reservation list is announced at the last minute to favour political parties and their vote bank calculations, it denies us of decent hardworking candidates.”
Mentioning that political parties use ‘late announcement’ as a tool to settle internal scores, Mr Srinivas said “Caste and money play a big role as well, as the aspirants are willing to spend crores to get (buy) tickets and then contest elections , he said.
BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad was not available for comment.
