Reservations will force corporators to drop out: Rizwan

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru

Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad has said that incumbent corporators will not be able to contest from anywhere, thanks to reservation of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) wards.

He added that corporators wouldn’t contest from some other constituency where they do not live. “There is no option (but to drop out). How will they contest if there is no reservation for them to contest? Minorities will particularly suffer in this whole exercise,” Rizwan said.

“Selective targeting has been done to make sure that a lot of corporators from the Opposition parties don’t contest, that they shouldn’t be able to contest. The way they have delimited the wards, and the way they have reserved them, if there is an election and the BBMP is constituted, you’ll find that all sections of society will not be adequately represented,” he added.

The Shivajinagar MLA said the reservations were being concentrated in wards located in Congress-held Assembly constituencies. “About 80 percent of the women’s reservation has been pushed in the constituencies where the Congress party is being represented. We’re happy to take it. There’s no issue. But, reservation for women, Other Backward Classes and minorities have to be evenly spread so that every area gets proper representation. Why do you give reservations? So that all sections of society get represented adequately. So when you concentrate in a few places that means you are anti-reservation and you want to push it on others,” Arshad said.

“The whole exercise of the BBMP elections is unfairly conducted, unscientifically done with the only intention of the BJP is to gain power. So, the way they have done the delimitation is itself unscientific. It defeats the purpose with which the corporation elections have to be conducted. There we have objected. We have said please delimit it properly. Make it into administrative units that can be easily governed by the people, where the common man can access the facilities provided by the BBMP. More than 3,000 objections were filed, but they were not considered by this government because their intention is to win the elections by unfair means and not to give respite to Bengalureans,” the MLA said.

 “We have approached the court. We hope that we get some justice from the court. With this kind of delimitation, if you go to elections, Bengaluru city will be burdened with maladministration rather than providing any sense of support to people living here,” he added.

BJP will lose state polls: MLA

Arshad also expressed confidence that the BJP would lose in the Assembly polls, which are due in May 2023.

“As far as Assembly polls are concerned, we are very confident that Congress is coming back to power because people of the state are fed up with the kind of administration they are seeing. There is no governance in Karnataka. The only motive of the BJP is to loot and scoot. The 40 per cent commission is something every citizen of the state knows. They are here only to make money. So there is no governance, no progress, no communal harmony, no law and order,” he said.

“Every month, you see youngsters getting murdered. You see BJP leaders provoking people. Making communities confront each other. So this kind of atmosphere will not lead to investments and the brand Karnataka as a global state, as a state that is progressive and at the forefront of India’s development story, that is being demolished.

There is talk among BJP leaders that they will bring in the UP model. What can be more humiliating for me as a Kannadiga than to follow the UP model? The way they have humiliated Kannadigas, the way they have indulged in corruption and looted the people of Karnataka, they are going to be thrown out mercilessly by the people of Karnataka in the coming elections,” the MLA said.