Direct election of City Mayor unlikely now

Direct election of City Mayor unlikely now
By Basavaraj Itnaal, DH News Service, Bangalore:

Though the State Government is moving fast in deference to the Karnataka High Court order to hold election to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) within three months, it may not be possible to meet the deadline, government sources said.

The sources told Deccan Herald that the elections would be held immediately after delimitation of Wards and roster points are prepared. Issues such as changing the method of electing the Mayor and having BBMP Act amended would not be taken up now. BBMP would continue to function under Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 and the City would continue to elect a new Mayor every 11 months.

The schedule of delimited Wards is ready and the draft would be notified once it is approved by the forthcoming Cabinet meeting. But inviting objections to the draft notification would require one month and processing them would take another fortnight. That would be followed by final notification of the schedule of Wards.

Then the government would have to prepare roster points specifying which ward would be reserved for which community/category. This would take another month.

The State Election Commission would then come into the picture and would need at least two months to conduct the polls. In effect, BBMP elections cannot be held before November, sources said.