BBMP ward quota list angers Cong

NT Correspondent

 Bengaluru

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on Friday came down heavily on the BJP led State government over the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) reservation list, calling it politically motivated.

Congress argued that the reserved seats, especially those that were set aside for women, were concentrated in wards where Congress and JD(S) had previously won. This forced incumbents to give up their wards and contest from elsewhere, they said.

 As per the new rules, out of the 243 BBMP wards, 121 will be reserved for women. As many as 81 wards have been marked for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 28 for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and four for Scheduled Tribes (STs).

KPCC President D.K. Shivakumar, who was on a trip to Chikkaballapur district, termed the BJP “fraud by another name.”He claimed the distribution of reservations favoured the BJP.

“The BBMP election reservations should have been done according to population. However, it has been done so as to ensure Congress candidates lose and the equation becomes easier for the BJP while casting aside the principle of social justice,” he said.

 KPCC working president Ramalinga Reddy claimed that essential guidelines had not been followed in the manner in which some seats had been reserved. For instance, wards set aside for STs are not home to many tribals, he argued.

“Of the 69 (Assembly) constituencies where general wards lay, 49 are currently occupied by the BJP. The government should withdraw it,” he said.

The former minister pointed out that in Jayanagar, out of six wards, five have been reserved for women. In Gandhinagar, all seven wards have been set aside for women, he added. In Chamarajpet, the women have five of the six wards reserved for them, Reddy said.

 Chamarajpet MLA Zameer Ahmed complained that wards under his constituency had been gerrymandered without much thought for guidelines. “They are trying to make it so that Congress doesn’t win from anywhere. They have done this because the fear a Congress victory,” he said.

Bytarayanpura MLA Krishna Byre Gowda argued that BJP had resorted to an unfair delimitation and reservation exercise because Bengaluru citizens were unhappy with them due to civic issues such as bad roads, adding that they could only give themselves a fighting chance by making the election process unfair.

 “The BJP will not win through a direct route. For this reason, they have taken the illegal route and reserved the wards as per their preference. They are trying to scuttle Congress’ strong candidates. This shows the BJP’s desperation,” he said.