ELECTIONS

Folks at Whitefield Rising have gone super-creative, by choosing artistic means to express their worries and describe the problems. A rap song released on SoundCloud asks God Mahadeva (Shiva) why the state of affairs in his 'Pura' are in such a  mess, and asks BBMP where the money paid as taxes has gone. Whitefield lies in Mahadevapura zone of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara palike. Apart from this every Friday, people in Whitefield observe Black Friday by dressing up in black. Through the hashtag #WhitefieldBlackFriday on Twitter, they tweet to draw the attention of the authorities and political parties. Here is a…

Unregistered street vendors have to pay off the police every day. As per the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihoods and Street Vendors)Act, 2014 , BBMP has the primary responsibility of ensuring the rights of street vendors and of regulating street vending. Unfortunately, none of the political parties seem to have taken this into consideration while drafting their manifestoes. While no party talks about implementing the law, what is worse is that some parties instead talk of evicting us! Our federation has studied the manifestoes of all major parties and we bring before you an analysis of the same.   Party…

  Prakash Belawadi Actor and activist Prakash Belawadi is also a member of BPAC - Bangalore Political Action Committee. He had been a candidate in the last BBMP elections in 2010. This time he has helped moderate many ward level debates for Namma Bengaluru Foundation. He responds to some questions related to the upcoming BBMP elections.  During the national elections, you supported BJP and Modi. Given the performance of the last 5 years of BBMP, ruled by the BJP, would you still do the same? No way. Yes, I voted for BJP because of Modi in the Lok Sabha polls.…

Mohandas Pai, Vice-president of B.PAC, responds to a few quick questions by Citizen Matters. Do you really think any party has performed well over the recent years in Bangalore? Any individuals (MLAs or corporators) you have seem performing at a local level? No, but a few (individual) MLAs and corporators have done well. Will this election change anything at BBMP? Yes, if the educated middle class come out and vote in large numbers and get good people in. What are the chances of the BCLIP candidates? How do you think the results themselves will affect the programme? Decent chances if…

He has been an opinion leader on social media, with good number of followers on Twitter. Being a techsavvy politician, he is the hot favourite among the online community. He has been asking people to come out and vote. And he has expressed his support to BJP in the BBMP election 2015. Citizen Matters sent a few questions to Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajyasabha MP from Bengaluru who also founded Namma Bengaluru Foundation that works in the area of civic involvement in the city. Here are the questions and Chandrasekhar's answers. Why are you putting in so much effort? We understand you…

 Editor's note: Analysing 590 affidavits from three major parties is a gigantic task. We could analyse only 240 of them. Here are the highlights of our partial analysis. If you have analysed affidavits and have noted anything of importance, do mail us at edit (at) citizenmaters (dot) in.Majority of the candidates contesting this BBMP election from three major political parties - BJP, Congress and the JD(S) have one thing in common. A large number of them are less educated, but are stinking rich. When Citizen Matters looked into the affidavits of candidates from BJP, Congress and JD(S), from 84 wards…

154 - Basavanagudi   A few lakhs have been spent in this ward for "Purchase of Land and Construction of Houses, Hostels, Ambedkar Bhavan (Incl Prev yr Bal. Bills)" - a pattern that is repeated in many wards including Koramangala. Basavanagudi happens to be the ward of Katte Satyanarayana, the ex-mayor of BBMP. The population in the ward seems to have bulged over four years, with population of 2011 census showing only 32,640 people in the ward, while voter list for 2015 BBMP elections says there are 39,184 voters in 1.2 sq kms! This means the population is still higher.…

166 - Karisandra   There are works with no job codes for which payments have been made in this ward. Here is more information on the ward. MLA (2013): R Ashoka (BJP), Padmanaba Nagar MP (2014): Ananth Kumar (BJP), Bangalore South BBMP 2010 Corporator: Jyothisri Hari Reddy (INC)#98, 2nd cross, 3rd Phase, 5th Block, Banashankari 3rd stage, Bangalore-85. Ph: 9448451080 Reservation: G Votes Winner's percentage: 20.5 Winner's margin: 9 Total votes polled: 12393 Total voters: 26148 BBMP 2015 Total voters: 21925Male: 11013Female: 10911Others: 1 Reserved: General (Women) Contesting Candidates BJP: Yashoda LakshmikanthINC: Jyothishree HarireddyJDS: Vidya GLoksatta: Shilpa PawarRPI: Nirmala Devaraj…

177 - JP Nagar   Complaints data shows that garbage and roads are the major problems here. More information on the ward follows: MLA (2013): B N Vijayakumar (BJP), Jaya Nagar MP (2014): Ananth Kumar (BJP), Bangalore South BBMP 2010 Corporator: N. Chandrashekar Raju (BJP)#20/1, 22nd 'A' Main, Marenahalli, 2nd stage, J.P Nagar, Bangalore. Ph: 9880185530 Reservation: BC-A Votes Winner's percentage: 28.5 Winner's margin: 4163 Total votes polled: 11981 Total voters: 27439 BBMP 2015 Total voters: 26776Male: 13582Female: 13192Others: 2 Reserved: General (Women) Contesting Candidates BJP: KN Lakshmi NatrajINC: AshaJDS: S LeelavatiCPI(M): Neela Nanjesh Demographics Population (2011): 28846 Households: 7566…

117 - Shanthi Nagar   This ward perennially suffers from poor drainage issues and traffic jams. More information on the ward follows: MLA (2013): N A Haris (INC), Shanthi Nagar MP (2014): P C Mohan (BJP), Bangalore Central BBMP 2010 Corporator: P Sowmya (INC)#26, 3rd cross, 1st main road, Vinayakanagara, Adugodi Post, Bangalore-27. Ph: 9986220732 Reservation: G Votes Winner's percentage: 28 Winner's margin: 8340 Total votes polled: 14896 Total voters: 38500 BBMP 2015 Total voters: 35078Male: 17713Female: 17359Others: 6 Reserved: General (Women) Contesting Candidates BJP: RV Nagaratna YadavINC: P SowmyaJDS: Valli SubramanyaCPI(M): Shashikala NagarajIndependent: Mariya Assuntha, Luthfia Ali, Sujatha S…