ELECTIONS

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…

Bangalore People's Forum has recently come up with a manifesto for the consideration of voters and candidates participating in elections in BBMP electiions 2010. The forum consists of the following organisations.  ActionAid, Alternate Law Forum, Centre for Education and documentation, CIVIC, Community Health Cell, Concerned for Working Children, Environment Support Group (Environment, Social Justice and Governance Initiatives), Garment and Textile Workers Union, Hasiru Usiru, Hengasara Hakkina Sangha, Janasahyog, Janarogya Andholan Karnataka (PHM-KA), Kilikili, Maraa, Nightingales Medical Trust, Sahajeeran, Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, Sangama, Save Bangalore Committee, Slum Jagattu, The Avenue Road Traders Associations, Vimochana Introduction All efforts of the…

Citizen Matters is organising two election debates/meet-the-candidates interactions in your area - one for BTM Ward (176) and one for JP Nagar ward (177). Both events will happen on the weekend of March 20-21. March 28, will be a historic day for both Bengaluru and the High Court of Karnataka. For 3 1/2 years, the city did not have its own government and that will soon change. If the High Court had not put its foot down repeatedly, we may have seen even more postponements. For a number of reasons this election may turn out to be a watershed in…

In what is their first step towards mainstream politics in Bangalore, a group of city-based activists have come together for the BBMP council elections by floating two independent candidates. These activists have formed a group called the Praja Rajakiya Vedike, which will support the candidates in these elections. Says Elavarthi Manohar, one of the members of this group, "We have all fought with regard to human rights, women's rights, sexuality minority rights. We wanted to bring about a change. So we all got together". Manohar is also the founder of Sangama, a sexuality minorities human rights organisation for individuals oppressed…

Note: Click here for the FAQ on BBMP Elections: how to find your ward and more.  CANDIDATES (in order of ward number) Click on links to access profiles, manifestos, affidavits for each candidates as av. Parties: LS-Loksatta; INC-Congress; BJP-Bharatiya Janata Party; JDS-Janata Dal(S);KPP-Karnataka Praja Party; CPI(M) Communist Party of India (Marxist); INL (Indian National League) BE A COMMUNITY JOURNALIST!Join our public initiative to collect and share candidate information. Download the questionnaire and collect the info about BBMP candidates. You can use candidate affidavit, candidate supplied material, and/or speak to the candidate to gather the details. Mail the completed questionnaire to…

It's election month in the city and BBMP's revenue officers, who take on the electoral role of Returning Officers (RO) for the State Election Commission (SEC) are busy accepting nomination papers from contestants throughout the city.For the past three days the SEC has been reeling tens of numbers of nominations each day and a look at their numbers indicated there are more nominations than candidates. Even though some major parties have not declared their ticket lists, several hopefuls have filed their nominations with the ROs.Citizen Matters caught up returning officer C Thimmiah of R T Nagar to ask him a…

 After mindlessly surfing the networking world, I finally thought I'll write something. What then shall I write about? The current hot topics are Women's Reservation Bill & IPL.Forget IPL, everyone wants to write about it - whether it concerns cricket or not. The women's reservation bill - well, I don't like reservation of any kind. But that's another story altogether.So what do I want to write about? Well, there's the BBMP election. An election that has been postponed so much that I'm not too sure it'll happen until the D-day. The ward I live in has a SC, W category.…