Councillors get poll fever

It is not just the incumbent MLAs who are battle-ready. The city’s councillors, including a few former mayors and deputy mayors, are gearing up to throw their hats into the ring.

Around 10 councillors of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), including Mayor R. Sampath Raj and Opposition Leader Padmanabha Reddy, and nearly 13 former councillors are aspirants for tickets from their respective parties to contest the upcoming Assembly elections.

Most of the councillors and former councillors vying for tickets are from the BJP. Interestingly, some of the ticket aspirants are those who have recently jumped ship to join the BJP, such as N. Nagaraj, former councillor from Nandini Layout who was with the Congress, and N.L. Narendra Babu, former councillor and MLA who was also in the Congress.

One of the first to formally submit an application for a ticket was Mr. Sampath Raj. After submitting his application, he had announced his intention to contest from the C.V. Raman Nagar Assembly segment.

Mr. Padmanabha Reddy is seeking to contest from Sarvagnanagar constituency from the BJP. He had contested in the previous Assembly elections from the same segment with a ticket from the Janata Dal (S) and lost to Minister for Bengaluru City Development K.J. George.

Mr. Narendra Babu, former deputy mayor S. Harish and Mr. Nagaraj are trying for a ticket from the BJP for the Mahalakshmi Layout constituency. “The three of us have a gentlemen’s promise... whoever gets the ticket, the other two will support the party candidate and work for them,” said Mr. Harish.

The others who are trying for tickets include former chairperson of the Standing Committee for Major Works H. Ravindra (Vijayanagar); former mayor N. Shanthakumari and Govindarajanagar councillor K. Umesh Shetty (Govindarajanagar); former mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana (Basavanagudi); former chairperson of the Standing Committee for Accounts A.L. Shivakumar and former councillor of Dharmaraya Swamy Temple ward P. Dhanraj (Gandhinagar), former mayor S.K. Nataraj, former ruling party leader N.R. Ramesh, and former chairperson of the Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance P.N. Sadashiva (Chikpete); former councillors Vasudev Murthy, Sridhar Reddy and Goutham Kumar (Shanthinagar).

The BJP has apparently had a survey done by two teams — a central team and an internal team from the State — in the city. “The party is likely to give tickets to whoever has got a favourable result in the survey. The list of candidates is likely to be announced on April 10,” said Mr. Harish.

From the Congress, sources said, apart from Mr. Sampath Raj, former mayors B.N. Manjunath Reddy (Bommanahalli), G. Padmavathy (Rajajinagar) and K. Chandrashekhar (Basavanagudi), and former ruling party leader Mohammed Rizwan (Jayanagar) are reportedly seeking tickets. However, Mr. Manjunath Reddy told The Hindu that ‘due to certain developments within the party’, he had decided to not seek a ticket this time.

“There have been very few councillors who have risen to become MLAs. The political parties usually seek the help of councillors to work for the party and the party candidate during Assembly polls. If councillors are given tickets, it is the party that will benefit, as it will get strengthened at the grassroots level. The parties, however, may consider giving tickets to those who have worked towards building the organisational strength,” noted Mr. Sadashiva.