MYSURU: Chief minister
Siddaramaiah
said his govt will kickstart the process to hold Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and
zilla and taluk panchayat elections
soon after the June 4 counting of votes for the
Lok Sabha elections
is over.
Polls to these local bodies are long overdue and were postponed for several reasons. Zilla and taluk panchayat (ZP and TP) polls — an exercise that is perhaps matched in scale only by assembly polls since they will be held across all 31 districts — have been pending since May 2021, while BBMP council polls were originally due in September 2020.
They were first disrupted by the pandemic and later by reorganisation of constituencies.
“My govt is ready to conduct taluk and zilla panchayat elections and
BBMP elections
once Lok Sabha polls are completed,” Siddaramaiah told reporters in Mysuru on Friday.
He said delimitation of w ards has been completed and the next step is to finalise the reservation matrix.
When questioned about the Jan deadline to complete the
delimitation process
, he merely said he would hold discussions with officials and ensure elections are conducted as per rules.
In Sept last year, the
urban development department
reduced BBMP wards from 243 to 225 through a notification. Delimitation for zilla panchayats, comprising 1,101 constituencies, and taluk panchayats (3,621 seats), was carried out in Nov 2023.
Yathindra for MLC polls?
On the possibility of his son, Yathindra Siddaramaiah, becoming an MLC, Siddaramaiah said that the decision lies with the party high command, which has indicated support for Yathindra’s election to the Upper House.
“During the 2023 assembly polls, the party high command asked him to make way for me to contest from Varuna segment which he represented,” Siddaramaiah said. “At that time, the high command told him he will be fielded in council elections. I don’t know what the party will do now. I had planned to contest from Kolar segment last year but the party asked me to contest from Varuna.”
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