The chairpersons of the 12 standing committees in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were elected unopposed, even as councillors from the Opposition BJP boycotted the election on Thursday.
The long-pending election was held by Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun here. Though the members of the committees were elected on December 5, the election of chairpersons was put off owing to lack of consensus.
The BJP had announced that it would field Laggere councillor Manjula Narayanaswamy, who is from the JD(S), for the post of chairperson of the Standing Committee for Social Justice, and BTM Layout councillor K. Devadas, also from the JD(S), for the Standing Committee for Ward Works. Ms. Narayanaswamy and Mr. Devadas have been supporting the BJP and had even backed it during the mayoral election. However, on Thursday, both were conspicuous by their absence.
According to the understanding between the ruling alliance partners, Congress councillors were made chairpersons of six standing committees and JD(S) councillors of four; the remaining two were Independents.
The Congress has bagged the standing committees for Major Works (Lavanya Ganesh Reddy), Town Planning (S.G. Nagaraj), Accounts (M. Velunaikar), Social Justice (P. Sowmya), Markets (Fareeda Ishtiyaq), and Appeals (Sujatha D.C. Ramesh). The JD(S) has bagged Taxation and Finance (S.P. Hemalatha), Ward Works (Umme Salma), Education and Sports (Imran Pasha), and Horticulture (B.S. Aishwarya), while Independents took the chair in Health (A. Mujahid Pasha) and Personnel and Administrative Reforms (N. Anand Kumar).
‘Illegal election’
The BJP councillors who are members of the various committees were present in the office of Opposition Leader Padmanabha Reddy. Mr. Reddy termed the election “illegal” and alleged that it was not conducted in a transparent manner.
The elections were held without quorum, he said, adding that he would write to BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad and the Additional Chief Secretary of Urban Development Department, urging them to initiate disciplinary action against the BBMP council secretary.