Bangaloreans' electoral apathy makes a corrupt BMP

Bangaloreans' electoral apathy makes a corrupt BMP
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The ongoing debate to strengthen the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) and to merge the City Municipal Councils (CMC) has ignored one basic electoral issue - the general apathy of the citizen to vote.

Electoral statistics reveal that the average voters turn out in the BMP elections is a mere 30 percent and most of it is from the slums.

An average ward with over 40,000 voters has a slum population of over 15,000.

And with votes getting divided among the top three candidates, any one polling around 6,000 is through.

While the great middle class goes on holidaying on polling day, the candidate capable of `buying' a few thousands of votes becomes `city father'.

“Such an apathy of the middle class voters to BMP elections affects the city development as most of infrastructure works like roads, flyovers and drains matter most to the middle class which never votes,'' lamented BJP city spokesman S Prakash.

While the councillors get away with every deed and decision that may go against the interest of the middle class, it becomes easier for them to keep their slum vote bank happy by offering them benefits of welfare schemes.

The city has hundreds of residents welfare associations making representations to the civic body for works and many NGOs offering unsolicited policy guidance. But the `city fathers' can easily ignore them as they do not matter to their electoral prospects.

And bureaucrats continue to execute the BMP decisions and not elected representatives.

On the contrary, the state has recorded a turn out of more than 90 per cent in rural segments in the Assembly elections.

The high tech urban voter, however, feels no embarrassment to make use of the civic body, once the elections are over.