Many ex-corporators can't contest from same wards

With many seats reserved for women, they plan to field their wives

With big changes in the reservation of wards in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), many former corporators will not be able to contest from the same wards in the elections scheduled for July 28.

But most of them have either made up their mind to contest from neighbouring wards or field their better halves/daughters from the wards they had won in the previous elections. 

For instance, former corporator from Shakambari Nagar, B Somashekhar of the BJP, has suggested to his party to let his wife contest from that ward. The ward reservation (backward class ‘A’) is unchanged but the seat is now reserved for women. 

A similar situation has unfolded in Chamarajpet ward where former BJP corporator B V Ganesh wants his wife to contest. “It is better to contest from our existing ward than to jump to a neighbouring ward and face trouble there. I’m confident that my party will ensure my wife’s victory,” he hoped. 

But Gangabyraiah, who represented Dr Rajkumar ward for the BJP, has a different demand. He has given two options to the BJP bosses: Either his wife or daughter be fielded from the seat which has now been reserved for women. Former mayors D Venkatesh Murthy who represented Kathriguppe ward and S K Nataraj from Sarakki ward face a similar problem. Both of them are planning to field their wives. 

Other former corporators, however, intend to contest from the adjoining wards. N R Ramesh, the former leader of the ruling party in the BBMP, who represented Yediyur, said he would contest from a ward in the neighbouring Chickpet assembly constituency. 

If M Srinivas, the former corporator from Padmanabhanagar, has set his eyes on Kumaraswamy Layout, V Vagish from Maruthi Nagar and Mohan Kumar from Govindarajanagar have decided to swap their wards. C K Ramamurthy from Pattabhirama Nagar is planning to contest from Jayanagar East. 

Compared with previous elections, nearly 30 more seats have been reserved for women for the upcoming polls. Ninety-seven out of the 198 wards in the BBMP are now reserved for women, as the female quota has been increased by 50 per cent. 

Ironically, the BJP’s former corporators—C K Ramamurthy, B Somashekar, L Ramesh and P Sugumaran who had moved the High Court for conduct of timely elections to the BBMP—are also under pressure, as reservation has been changed in their respective wards. 

The BJP used to represent at least six wards in the Rajajinagar Assembly constituency. Now, only women can contest in four of these wards. In the Padmanabhanagar Assembly constituency, there were five BJP corporators. Three wards in this constituency are now reserved for female candidates. 

Interestingly, all the eight wards in KR Puram, Bommanahalli and Govindarajangar Assembly constituencies, which the BJP had won, have undergone change in reservation. 

More interestingly, there is no change in reservation for wards represented by the Congress’s former corporators such as B N Manjunath Reddy (Madiwala), M Udaya Shankar (Siddapur) and K Chandrashekhar (Hanumanthanagar). Former mayor B S Satyanarayana of the BJP, who represented Basavanagudi, is lucky too.