Why Siddaramaiah’s Poll Dance Failed To Entice Bengaluru Voters

Though Siddaramaiah tried hard to dodge the civic polls, the results come are a blow to the Congress. Read here.

Siddaramaiah’s Game Plan Fails

• Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had tried hard to dodge the civic polls altogether
• Drastic change in historical trend: no party in power at the state has lost civic elections in the capital since 1983
• Congress also wary of the BJP which had won 12 of the 28 assembly seats in Bangalore in 2013
• BBMP Council known for red tape, Siddaramaiah through his administration proved that he was no better

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday owned responsibility for the Congress defeat in the elections to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). But only had he been a bit more graceful, for in the same breath he asserted that it was not a referendum either on himself or his party. Siddaramaiah perhaps suffers from the Ostrich Syndrome, or is too arrogant to accept reality.

The Chief Minister has been parroting the referendum line for a while, and only because he saw the writing on the wall last year itself when the Congress, which has been ruling Karnataka since May 2013, was routed in the state during the 2014 general elections. Even an opinion poll carried out in the Karnataka capital a few months back had predicted a clear victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was in power in the palike, till Siddaramaiah had it dissolved.

Congress Loses Face

Even after being told by the Supreme Court to hold elections to the BBMP, it had been a proverbial loss of face for him, for Siddaramaiah had tried every trick in the trade to either avoid the polls or bypass the civic body altogether. He had ousted the BJP, riding on the plank of a clean and efficient administration.

But the sorry state of civic affairs in the city is ample proof that little has changed, leave alone improve, in the last two years.

Siddaramaiah held all crucial ministerial portfolios governing the city’s main civic agencies – BBMP, the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) and the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB). Everything reflected adversely on him. In fact, ground had been slipping from under his feet from the very beginning. Allegations of administrative lethargy had plagued him since day one.

The wily Siddaramaiah knew that the BJP might have lost the state in 2013, but it still retained control over a considerably large turf in Bengaluru. The BJP had won 12 of the 28 assembly seats in Bangalore that year. Then, it grabbed all three Lok Sabha seats from the city a year later. Moreover, 113 of the outgoing palike’s 198 corporators were from the BJP.

‘Split’ Move Backfired

It was important for Siddaramaiah to regain control over Bengaluru. For, an electoral defeat would not only be a sad reflection on his own administrative non-performance, it would also buck a historical trend: no party in power at the state has lost civic elections in the capital since 1983. But neither of these are as good reasons to nail him to the cross as was the way in which he had been going around BBMP affairs for a year.

In September last year, the state government constituted a three-member expert committee to look into a possible restructuring of the BBMP. In February this year, Siddaramaiah constituted a one-man committee headed by IAS officer Rajendra Kumar Kataria to probe into alleged irregularities in the BBMP. Kataria reportedly completed his work in just a fortnight.

As the expert committee kept researching and consulting with corporators and non-governmental organisations, matters took their own legal course. First, on March 30, the Karnataka High Court directed the state government to conduct the BBMP polls before May 31, clearly telling it not to delay elections on the pretext of delimitation of wards.

The term of the council was to expire on April 22. This made Siddaramaiah act in haste. On April 10, the government drew up a draft ordinance seeking to split the BBMP and send it to Governor Vajubhai Vala. The governor returned it the next day, saying he was not satisfied with the ordinance, and questioned its timing.

Siddaramaiah’s Goof-Up

The next week Siddaramaiah commited hara kiri: the Cabinet on April17 decided to take control of the BBMP. The civic body was dissolved the next day, and the term of the palike’s 198 corporators, including Mayor Shantakumari, was terminated without notice. All standing committees were dissolved under Section 99 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act, 1976, citing failure on the part of the BBMP Council in discharging its civic duty, utter financial mismanagement, and large scale irregularities. The ground for this had already been laid.

There were enough grounds to believe that the Siddaramaih government was playing to a gameplan, however petty and short-sighted. Earlier in March, the Urban Development Department had issued a showcause notice to the BBMP seeking explanation on alleged financial irregularities. It also served notices to all corporators, including the mayor and the commissioner under Section 99 of the KMC Act.

The said section provides power to the state government to supercede or dissolve the BBMP Council. Then, the government convened a special session of the Legislature on April 20 to push through its initiative. In its five-page notification, the state government quoted the Kataria report on irregularities and mismanagement in the BBMP.

Congress Needs to Introspect

The Assembly passed the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2015 on April 20, but the bill got held up in the Upper House where the BJP and its ally Janata Dal (Secular) had the adequate numbers. Siddaramaiah remained adamant and the Assembly once again passed the Bill after it was re-introduced.

The Governor refused to give his assent to the Bill, and instead forwarded it to the President for his reference. The elections to the BBMP could have been stalled had Pranab Mukherjee given his assent by August 3, when the notification for the elections was to be issued by the State Election Commission. The President, obviously, didn’t play ball.

And while it was always true that the BBMP Council was inefficient and corrupt, Siddaramaiah through his administration proved that he was no better. He also refused to acknowledge that the public suffers from mood swings – their mood changes, uncomfortably fast.

People want a better life: it would have been in Siddaramaiah’s own interest to understand that. As things stand, he has gone down – and taken his party too down with him.

[Subir Ghosh (www.subirghosh.in) is a Bengaluru-based journalist and researcher]