The state government has notified the reservation of seats for Schedule Caste (SC), Schedule Tribe (ST), Backward Classes (BC) communities and women for the upcoming BBMP elections.
(1) Seats shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in every municipality and the number of seats so reserved shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in that municipality as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the municipal area or of the Scheduled Tribes in the municipal area bears to the total population of that area and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a municipality.
(2) Not less than one-third of the total number of seats reserved under clause (1) shall be reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes or, as the case maybe, the Scheduled Tribes.
(3) Not less than one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the SC and the ST) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every municipality shall be reserved for women and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a municipality.
The complete list of wards and reservations is here.
The new and expanded BBMP (city) council when fully constituted will have 198 seats, as opposed to the erstwhile BMP council, which had 100 seats. The reservations for the council seats were gazetted by the state government on 30 November 2009. The dates for the elections are expected to be announced by the State Election Commission on 7 December.
A ‘Reserved Seat’ means a seat reserved for SC, ST, BC and women.
The Backward Caste (A category) will get 35 seats whereas women of this category will get 18 seats. For the Backward Caste (B Category), nine seats have been reserved, while the BC women get four seats. In the General category, 71 seats are reserved and another 36 for women.
Reservation of seats is done on a rotational basis, that is, wards that have been reserved previously will not be reserved for the next elections. For example, in the 2001 city council elections the Gandhinagar ward (then Ward No 27, now Ward No 94) was reserved for SC (women), but this time round, the draft list shows that it is for the General category. The same with Madiwala (then Ward No. 66, now Ward No. 172) which was reserved for SC and is now in the General category.
The 30 November final notification comes after several delays. At least some of the delay was because of lawsuits in the High Court where petitioners had contested the proportionality method used by the state government to decide SC seat allocation for the council.
If you know your ward number or ward name you can now check whether it is a reserved or general seat, and if reserved, which community’s candidate can contest from there. Go to the complete list of wards and reservations for this. ⊕