Fight for the long awaited election begins

Mangaluru: In the backdrop of the state election commission requesting the Deputy commissioner of DK district to start preparations to conduct the city corporation election, the preparation have already begun.

On Sep 13^th, the state election commission has requested the DCs of the concerned districts to commence preparations to hold elections at all local bodies whose legal cases have been completed and office terms will end in Dec 2019.

Preparations begin

The commission has asked for the preparation of the voters list, polling booth list, appointing of election staff, EVM gathering and the list for the appointing of election officer. It has also requested that a list be created for appointing an assistant divisional officer for every 5 wards in the corporation or an officer from equal post. Due to all these reasons, the district administration has started all preparations in this concern.

Even while the election commission was passing the directive to hold corporation elections, all political parties have already begun their calculations. The higher-ups in the political parties have started discussing regarding the possible candidates for the election based on the recently passed reservation scheme.

Amidst this, the seniors in Congress and BJP parties have already conducted a few rounds of internal meetings and held discussions regarding who would be well suited for the 60 wards within MCC limits. But nothing has been finalized. Meanwhile, JD(S) and SDPI too have shown interest to contest in every ward.

BJP administration is in the centre and the state, there are two BJP MLAs in the city and in the backdrop of MP Nalin Kumar becoming the president of BJP state unit, the party is trying its best to win over the corporation administration as well. Meanwhile, Congress will be fighting to once again win the administration of the corporation based on its work done for the development of the city when it was in power and on how well it has responded to the local issues.

Reservation issue; reason for the delay in election

When Kumaraswamy was the chief minister, some claimed that the rotation method used in the reservation list submitted to the state urban development department was not in line, and hence they submitted a writ to the state high court. This was investigated by a single judge bench in the high court who recommended the government to submit a new list.

But the state government put a higher appeal with a two judge bench against the judgment by the single judge bench. The investigation was conducted by the two judge bench in the high court and the appeal was dismissed on May 31^st. Nonetheless, the applicants once again approached the high court requesting that the judgment be re-examined. The investigation in this regard is currently ongoing. Amidst this, some put an application with the court questioning the non-conduction of the election so far. Hence on Aug 28^th, the high court directed the election commission to hole the entire election process within Nov 15^th.

Term completed on Mar 7^th

The term of Mangaluru City Corporation ended on Mar 7^th 2019. But, as some resorted to the court questioning the ward reservation, the election was not conducted. The corporation is made up of 60 wards. During the 2013 election, Congress gained 35 seats, BJP 20, JD(S) 2, SDPI 1 and one independent.