It is not just the state government, even the State Election Commission (SEC) wants more time to conduct the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections.
Its reasons are similar to those given by the government to the Karnataka high court. But while the state wants at least six months to hold the elections, the SEC has not specified how much time it would need.
On Tuesday, the SEC filed an application in the high court seeking directions to the government to prepare a fresh reservation list for the 198 BBMP wards at the earliest. SEC counsel, KN Phanindra, told the special bench, comprising justices Manjula Chellur and Abdul Nazeer, that the commission would be able to chart the poll schedule only after the final ward reservation notification.
The bench is hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) against the SEC’s notification cancelling the BBMP polls that were scheduled for February 21.
The SEC submitted that it would not be able to hold the elections at least till the end of May. It said elections to the 5,495 gram panchayats were scheduled to be held in two phases in March and April. The II-PU and SSLC exams would be conducted between March 18 and April 9. Also, a large number of government staff and teachers would be busy with the 2011 census work till May-end. Hence, it would not be able to conduct the polls before June.
The commission would require “reasonable time” after the ward reservation notification to conduct the polls, since the electoral rolls would have to be updated, it said.
The petitioners’ advocate, Laxmi Narayan, submitted that all that remained to be done was to study the demography of the 198 wards and then reserve wards with the highest population of SCs/STs for them.
The SEC application, along with the Interlocutory Application that was filed by the state government on Monday for postponing the BBMP polls, will be heard by a division bench, headed by Justice Gopala Gowda, on Wednesday. Further hearing on the PIL was adjourned to Wednesday afternoon
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