Series: BBMP Elections 2015

On August 15th, a debate was held between four candidates from four parties all campaigning to represent Varthur. The audience expressed much concern about Varthur Lake and services for locals. The candidates were also asked about procuring funding and providing services such as clean water.  Candidates: BJP: Pushpa Manjunath Congress : Nisha S Vasu JDS: Chamudeshwari BSP: Chandrakala Venue: SDV Mini Party Hall, Near Varthur Government Middle School Mediators: Sridhar Pabbisetty (SP) and Prakash Belawadi (PB) Prakash Belawadi summarised the state of affairs within BBMP and the city. He set the context for questions in the first session: BBMP is…

186 - Jaraganahalli   Many payments in this ward have no amount mentioned. Last corporator did not get a chance to recontest this time from here. Here is more information on the ward. MLA (2013): Sathish Reddy M (BJP), Bommana Halli MP (2014): Ananth Kumar (BJP), Bangalore South BBMP 2010 Corporator: Suguna Balakrishna (BJP)#25/6, Karthik Nilaya, Yalachenahalli, Kanakapura main road, Bangalore-78. Ph: 9845679995 Reservation: G Votes Winner's percentage: 21.1 Winner's margin: 708 Total votes polled: 11630 Total voters: 24613 BBMP 2015 Total voters: 26307Male: 13828Female: 12477Others: 2 Reserved: General (Women) Contesting Candidates BJP: BM ShobhaINC: Vinitha GLoksatta: Rajeshwari Doddamani Demographics Population…

181 - Kumara Swamy Layout   11 candidates are fighting for 41,830 votes in this ward. Here's more information on this ward. MLA (2013): R Ashoka (BJP), Padmanaba Nagar MP (2014): Ananth Kumar (BJP), Bangalore South BBMP 2010 Corporator: H. Suresh (BJP) #109, 2nd cross, New Layout, Kadirenahalli, Bangalore-70. Ph: 9686269623 Reservation: BC-A Votes Winner's percentage: 24.1 Winner's margin: 3851 Total votes polled: 18159 Total voters: 38616 BBMP 2015 Total voters: 41830 Male: 21673 Female: 20157 Others: 0 Reserved: General Contesting Candidates BJP: L Srinivas INC: T Pramod Kumar JDS: Venkatesh K Loksatta: Dr Banu Prakash Gowda CPM: Srinivas N…

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…