Governance

Four-term veteran Ramachandra Gowda, 74, won the graduates constituency MLC seat for Bangalore by a whisker. At the end of the first preference votes count, he was trailing the JD(S) candidate Deve Gowda. He then managed to edge past him when second preference votes we transferred from other candidates. Ramachandra Gowda (BJP). Pic: Ramachandra Gowda Ramachandra Gowda, the  incumbent, secured 8468 votes to Deve Gowda’s 8224, and Congress’ Ramoji Gowda, 39, was placed third with 5541 votes. Reformist Lok Satta party candidate Ashwin Mahesh, 42, came fourth. However his showing of 4000-plus first preference votes  has been widely seen in…

This year, I haven't seen the pre-monsoon rains that almost start by March. The monsoon is delayed and so far there has not been any good rains except maybe a couple of times. No matter how much we conserve, the water crisis is of grim proportions. We don't have Cauvery water yet, not that it is of great solace because we all know how irregular that supply is even in areas that have them. And, now BWSSB have literally left the people high and dry by suspending supply for 3 straight days in the coming week. In a thirsty and…

Names missing from the voters' list, confusion over booths allocated - it was deja vu for voters at the Graduate Constituency MLC election on Sunday. Although only 28% i.e. 30,800 off the 1,10,000 people registered showed up, voting was not smooth for many of them. In the previous MLC election, 20,000 voted out of the 70,000 graduates registered. MLA N A Haris with a voter trying to sort out the latter’s grievance. Pic: Sankar C G In many places, people faced difficulty in finding out their respective booths, as the website which carries the details of the voters list and…

Unlike previous years, BBMP held a meeting with NGOs this time to get their suggestions for the 2012-13 budget. The meeting, held on May 26th, had over 15 representatives from NGOs such as CIVIC, KRIA Katte (Karnataka RTI Act Forum), Hasiru Usiru, Citizens Action Forum (CAF) etc. About 25 people representing various NGOs attended the meeting. Pic: Navya P K The Chairman and three members of BBMP's Taxation and Finance Committee - which prepares the budget - attended. Chairman of the committee, Munendra Kumar (Jakkur Corporator, ward no.5), said that the budget draft has not been prepared and that public…

How can I find my name in electoral roll?Here is the final voter roll published in the website of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka: http://164.100.80.163/Teachers_Grd/a1.htmlWhere are the voting booths?The names of all voters and their respective voting booths are available at http://ashwinmahesh.in/mlcvote.htm. (Lok Satta compiled this list with data from CEO office.) In another tool http://mlc2012.herokuapp.com/, on entering your name, you can get the address and map to your booth. What is preferential voting?In the preferential voting system, voters should rank candidates in their order of preference. You have to put ‘1' against the name of the candidate you prefer…

R K Misra is a member of the ABIDe task force for Bengaluru and urban reforms campaigner. He's a card holding member of the BJP. And yet, here he is supporting a Loksatta candidate, Ashwin Mahesh, in the coming Sunday's Graduate constituency election. This support is part of his online campaign Bangalore28 that he has started on Facebook. Bangalore28 is a campaign to field ‘good candidates' for Bangalore's 28 MLC and MLA seats for the 2013 elections. He feels this will in turn impact the 2014 national elections. Citizen Matters asked RK (as he's popularly known) some hard questions on…

There was a citizen’s piece recently on Citizen Matters that talked about what BBMP should look at in the upcoming council budget. I would like to suggest adding bins. In fact, how about a vigorous, mass, ‘Bengaluru-centred ‘bin beku’ movement , along the lines of TeamHazare’s mobilisation  last year ? Lane outside BDA complex Koramangala. Filepic: Anisha Nair We need garbage bins. Urgently. I don’t know whose idea it was, to do away with roadside garbage bins, in the name of  “door-to-door collection” but  the city has now become one huge, continuous pile of rubbish, from one end of each…

June 2012 Of voter’s list, voting booths and preferential voting:  a guide to voting booths and how to find your name in the electoral rolls for the election on June 10th. Also a note on how the preferential system works. Sixteen candidates will battle it out in the Bangalore graduate constituency MLC election on June 10th. Campaigning in graduates MLC race intensifies, contrasts break through. Follow the progress of the Election campaignWho is running for office? Read the in-depth backgrounder on Ramachandra Gowda, Ramoji Gowda, A Deve Gowda, Ashwin Mahesh, Nagalaxmi Bai and K S Lakshmi. All about the MLC…

There are a three weeks to go for the Bangalore’s graduate constituency election - the one in which only graduates can vote. The candidate elected from this constituency will become a member in Legislative Council (MLC), the upper house of Karnataka's state legislature. With election scheduled for June 10th, candidates are campaigning intensely. In addition to the three mainstream political parties that usually participate in this election - BJP, Congress and JD(S) - the Andhra Pradesh-headquartered Lok Satta party has entered the fray this time. There are also independent candidates. An overview of the major candidates -Ramachandra Gowda, Ramoji Gowda,…

For the past one month, former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde has been campaigning for Ashwin Mahesh, Lok Satta party’s candidate for the graduate constituency MLC election. This is the first time Hegde is endorsing a candidate in any election. He also goes door-to-door appealing residents to vote for Mahesh. Justice Santhosh Hegde. File pic: Citizen Matters In this interview with Citizen Matters, Hegde talks about his decision to start engaging with elections.Why are you endorsing a candidate in this election?I was against anyone in Team Anna campaigning in elections, as it would almost be like taking sides. There are lot…