BBMP

Swarnamala Jain, a 51-year-old lawyer who has been a resident of HSR Layout for 16 years, believes that the issues of sanitation, water supply and stray dog menace should be prioritised. An independent candidate, she believes that the position of corporator will garner her enough experience to enter politics. Originally from Pune, Swarnamala has been living in Bangalore for the last 27 years. Her politician husband (a former Congress member) and son and daughter - both law students - are very supportive and contribute with new ideas, she says. She has declared assets worth Rs 1.5 crore. Swarnamala Jain. Pic:…

With a little more than 24 hours left for the BBMP council elections to take place, Domlur (Ward 112) residents got to familiarise themselves with their ward Corporator candidates in Domlur club on Wednesday, March 24th.The residents of the ward will choose their Corporator from five women candidates, namely L Manjula (Independent), Rajalakshmi Y L (Congress), Suguna H N (JD(S)), Geetha Srinivasa Reddy (BJP) and Sandhya Shantha Kumar (Independent). The ward has been reserved under the General category for women. Domlur candidates at an interaction with residents of the ward. Pic: Charu Sharma. As many as 150 residents came under…

This coming BBMP council election is seeing over 700 independent candidates in the fray. While many are contesting as independents after being denied a party ticket, there are others from low income groups and resident welfare associations, fed up with mainstream political parties, and therefore deciding to take it upon themselves to bring about some much-needed change. B Vedi is one such person. This 36-year-old has decided to contest in these elections upon the insistence of his supporters and ardent followers in the Dr B R Ambedkar Vegetable Loaders Association, based in KR Market and the residents of Sudhamanagar (Ward…

What was meant to be a healthy debate that would help the people of Vasanthnagar (Ward no: 93) decide on who was best suited to be their corporator went that way for over an hour. And then, in a matter of minutes, it spiralled into an emotionally-loaded exchange of words between rival political factions. The debate held at the Punjab Seva Samithi in the Vasanthnagar Area, saw the participation of five candidates - R. Mallikarjuna (Janata Dal (Secular)), Lokapriya (Nationalist Congress Party), N.S Ramakanth (Lok Satta Party), B.R Naidu (Congress) and Katta Jagadish Naidu (Bharatiya Janata Party). Arguments exchanged between…

Running for the post of corporator from Koramangala are four women from reserved Backward Caste ‘A' category. So come March 28th, the residents of Kormangla ward will have to choose from P Bhagya (BJP), Kokila Radakrishna (Congress), K Malathi (Independent) and Dr Florence (JD(S)) to represent them in the Council.All the four women came together on one platform to interact with the residents of their ward on March 21st at National Games Village, Koramangala. The event was a debate organised by SmartVote and the Koramangala United Citizens Council (KUCC).  Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde was invited as a special guest. The…

To see the Hasiru Usiru Mobility Manifesto,click here A document produced with many inputs and a lot of thought and hard work! ⊕

I spent sometime during the past week reading about a number of candidates in various election wards of BBMP. I have got email from some of them, and sms-es from some others. I've watched them walk by on the streets in my neighbourhood and in other areas. I've been reading the daily news reports about the elections that every paper is now carrying. I've seen the profiles posted on websites, including the one I moderate. And occasionally, I've watched a few minutes of campaign coverage and talk shows on TV.I encourage you to do all this too, because there's something…

It is possibly for the first time that citizens of Bengaluru are getting an opportunity to interact with candidates closely, ahead of the council elections. Through various such sessions being organised across the city, citizens can make an informed choice on March 28th, when they vote for their Councillor. From left to right – Manjunath Reddy (Congress), G N R Babu (Congress), K Devadas (Independent), Asgar Rafiuddin (Indian National League), Mohammad Sadiq (Independent) and H K Muthappa (BJP) at the debate organised by Citizen Matters and BTM RWAs. Pic: Chetan Boray Citizen Matters, along with residents welfare associations of BTM…

With BBMP elections round the corner, Citizen Matters along with resident's welfare associatons of JP Nagar (ward no: 177) and Sarkki (ward no: 178) organised a combined debate-cum-discussion for the candidates and residents of these areas on March 20th at Mahatma Play home grounds, JP Nagar.While Chandrashekar Raju (BJP), Teshi Venkatesh (JD(S)), and Prakash Kumar (Congress) addressed the concerns from residents of JP Nagar; candidates from Sarakki, namely, Swarnalatha (JD(S)) and Arun Kumar (Congress) discussed their plans on how to bring about change in their ward.  (From left) Teshi Venkatesh (JD(S) ), Prakash Kumar (Congress), Chandrashekar Raju (BJP), Arun Kumar…

"I am running to represent the people in all government offices and departments where they want their work done, but I am not going to make false promises about specific projects or schemes", says R Venkatesh, film director and JD(S) candidate for councillor at JP Nagar (Ward 177). Forty-two year old Venkatesh is a first-time corporator candidate and says he is inspired by H D Kumaraswamy's leadership.Venkatesh's attitude sums up a reformist and perhaps even non-ideological line, amongst the tickets mainline parties have given to some candidates. But with a whopping 198 seats up for the council, candidates of all…