Congress says fixing of population size in wards aimed at helping BJP

Ramalinga Reddy says party will file objections to the manner in which the exercise has been carried out

Senior Congress leader and former Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Saturday termed ‘unscientific’ the delimitation of wards in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and said no criteria was adopted for fixing population size uniformly.

Delimitation of wards has been done to the benefit of the ruling BJP and not to the convenience of residents of Bengaluru. The number of wards in Congress segments has reduced from 103 to 98, he said.

Mr. Reddy alleged discrimination in fixing the size of wards and said the population size in constituencies represented by Congress MLAs, on an average, was 36,753, while it was 33,927 in those represented by BJP MLAs. The size of wards in Govindarajanagar was less than 30,000 people. Citing another example, he said while the average population size in Chamarajpet wards was 39,000, it was 32,000 in Chikpet constituency.

Mr. Reddy said the party would file objections on delimitation of wards after consultations with lawyers on Monday.

KPCC working president Ramalinga Reddy alleged that the BBMP commissioner, joint commissioners and revenue officials have not been involved in the delimitation of wards. The number of wards increased at the behest of RSS and BJP leaders. The BBMP commissioner has only signed the notification and inserted the BBMP seal on the notification, Mr. Reddy claimed.

The Urban Development Department had notified the draft of the delimitation of wards and the number of wards increased from 198 to 243. The department has received 3,833 objections, a majority of them over naming of wards.