BENGALURU: With the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list now complete, the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) will make preparations on the basis of the list final voter list for the civic body elections. The Supreme Court has directed the government to complete the corporation election by December 30.
But now, questions are being raised whether the government go for re-division of wards as the number of voters has decreased after SIR and whether this will further delay election. The SIR process started from June 30 has and was completed on October 26. After the new voter list is published, the process of preparing ward-wise voter list for 369 wards under GBA will take place.
As this is first GBA election after division into five corporations, there is intense curiosity in political circles also. The Supreme Court has directed to complete the GBA election by December 30, hence there is pressure is on State Election Commission to conduct election within the deadline.
Earlier, there were about 1.3 crore voters in GBA limits and after revision, this number has come down to less than 60 lakh voters. Special Commissioner Shilpa Nag informed the media on Tuesday that the final number of voters in GBA limits is 59,09,775, including 28,67,256 male voters and 30,40,431 female voters. This change in number of voters may also affect ward-wise calculation.
Earlier, if each ward had average 25,000 voters, now there will be an average of 15,000 voters in 369 wards. Hence, there are questions over whether the government will go for re-division of wards again citing decrease in number of voters, and if the schedule of election will change due to this process. But, so far, no official decision has come out about re-division of wards or postponement of election.
On the other hand, GBA Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao informed that necessary preparations are being made to conduct the election in the 369 wards coming under the five city coporations. “The final voter list is being ready and we have received about five lakh Form 6, Form 7 and Form 8 applications. The special summary revision will be taken up next year. The State Election Commission will use the updated electoral rolls for the GBA election and the voter list will be prepared as per the delimitation”, he said.
