BBMP polls: All eyes on Supreme Court verdict

Bengaluru: The Supreme Court’s judgment on Friday regarding the BBMP election is crucial for the future of the BBMP and the state government. The Congress government, which has sought an extension in the poll schedule to complete delimitation of wards and fix the reservation matrix as per the 2011 census, seems to be doing the right thing at a wrong time. Although the census report was available nearly two years ago, it did not act until the BJP term in the BBMP ended.

If the Supreme Court orders that the elections should be held as per the calendar of events announced by the State Election Commission, according to the government’s own admission, the election will be held as per 2001 census. With Bengaluru being one of the world’s fastest growing cities, the divide among voters and the development of outskirts has been huge, observed urban planning expert Ashwin Mahesh.

He said, “In 2001, the core areas had three times the population of the outline areas. By 2015, the gap has been closed, and there are roughly as many people outside the ring road as inside it. The inner portion grew 17 per cent during the decade 2001-11, while the outer portion grew 111%. Property taxes from both parts are now roughly equal. There is highly disproportionate representation, with some wards having 20,000 voters and others like Horamavu having 1.10 lakh voters. The city’s growth is not the problem but the uneven growth is.”

Further, he adds that the government is correct in saying it wants to do the delimitation, but has chosen the wrong time. “If the state government had genuine concern for the governance and development of the city, it could have acted before scheduling the elections. Some day in the future these things will need to be resolved, despite the fact that the opportunity seems to have been missed now,” Mahesh said.

For a city which has seen a change of 47.18 percent in the population (compared to the population in 2001) in the last 14 years, the government and the erstwhile governments have consistently failed to keep up with the growth. Though all the wards should have equal number of voters, the government is doing too little too late by proposing to fix the reservation now. If its efforts to postpone the elections fall flat, it will be the final nail in the coffin for the government.

Legal tangle

• March 30 - High Court directs government to complete the poll process beforeMay 30
• April 13 - State government submits ward reservation list to the State Election Commission
• April 17 - The state cabinet supersedes BBMP
• April 29 - State government withdraws roster notification
• May 5 - The Supreme Court tells BBMP elections should be held within three months or before August 5
• June 22 - High Court tells government to follow Supreme Court directions
• June 25 - State Election Commission announces election on July 28
• June 29 - State government challenges High Court order in Supreme Court