The first-ever fight for political control of a geographically re-constituted Bangalore has triggered one of the most intense battles ever seen in the history of polls to the local council that governs the country?s IT capital.
The stakes were raised on January 16, 2007. That was the time when, from being a moderately-sized Bangalore Municipal Corporation with a 45 lakh population spread over 226 sq km, Bangalore became a gigantic Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike with a 75 lakh population encompassing 800 sq km. In terms of fiscal power, this has put it in the league of Greater Mumbai.
From 100 wards three years ago, the BBMP is today a 198-ward entity with seven city municipalities and one town municipality from rural Bangalore attached to it.
Over the past few weeks, political activity in Bangalore and in Karnataka in general has been building up to the BBMP polls. The terms of the elected representatives of the erstwhile BMC expired on November 23, 2006.
The frenzied political activity has seen the who?s who of Karnataka plunging into poll mode, including former Prime Minister HD Devegowda.
The former Prime Minister?s verbal abuse?subsequently regretted? against Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa on January 10 for his alleged support to the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project is seen as being an indirect call to rouse support for his party from its primary caste base, the Vokkaligas.
Ever since the BS Yeddyurappa-led BJP government came to power in Karnataka in June 2008, the ruling party has acquired the reputation of being largely a party for the Lingayat community of northern Karnataka?traditional political rivals of the Vokkaligas.
With the Vokkaligas being the dominant community in the southern parts of Karnataka including the newly reconstituted BBMP, Gowda?s tirade against Yeddyurappa for supporting an infrastructure project running through Vokkaliga country is widely seen as a call to attention for Vokkaliga voters.
The ruling BJP has resorted to its own tactics for the polls, announcing a slew of city development measures just before the election code of conduct kicked in on January 15.
The inauguration on January 22 of a 9.5 km dedicated expressway, built at a cost of over Rs 750 crore by the NHAI, to the Electronic City IT hub, is widely seen as the Congress party?s attempt to make a statement for the local polls.
Of course, it is not about political rivalry alone. The economic stakes are very high. Outside of the iron ore district of Bellary in north Karnataka, that is under the political control of the BJP?s Reddy brothers, Bangalore is the biggest money spinning pie in the state.
The battle for the expanded BBMP is particularly intense given the revenue projections for Bangalore in the coming years and the development pipeline currently in place for the city that is viewed as a jackpot by the politician-contractor nexus.
The city?s revenues have grown from Rs 790 crore in 2005 to over Rs 2,800 crore this year. The projected revenue for 2010-11 is Rs 4,300 crore, catapulting Greater Bangalore into the league of Greater Mumbai.
In the development pipeline are as many as 40 underpasses and flyovers under the BBMP jurisdiction apart from JNNURM-funded projects and hundreds of road improvement efforts. Projects worth as much as Rs 22,000 crore are in the pipeline for Bangalore.
With the first phase of the Metro expected to begin operations early next year, changes have also been affected in the floor area ratio available to builders in the CBD around the metro allowing them to build more vertically increasing the net of property taxes.
In the first Assembly polls held since the reconstitution of Bangalore, where the number of Assembly constituencies increased from 15 to 28, the BJP grabbed as many as 17 seats, the Congress 10 and the JD(S) only one seat.
The Congress and the JD(S) have been mulling a tie-up and have been working together in the run-up to the local polls. Following Gowda?s tirade and his son HD Kumaraswamy?s rejection of any truck with the Congress, the two parties are expected to agree upon a post-poll alliance rather than a pre-poll one but may carry out seat adjustments.
Incidentally, the local elections, put off at the behest of political parties for over two years, have been forced by a Karnataka High Court directive asking for the polls to be held by February 21.