Govt Issues Ordinance To Reserve One-Third Seats For OBC In Delayed City Polls

The Karnataka government has promulgated an ordinance to facilitate the reservation of one-third of the seats in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council for candidates from Other Backward Classes in order to facilitate the conduct of local polls for the Bengaluru city council, which have been pending since August 2020.
The ordinance promulgated Friday will amend the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Act of 2020, and facilitate the reservation of one-third of the BBMP council seats for the OBC category while restricting the total reservations for OBC, SC/ST below 50 per cent. The OBC reservation at present for local polls is 27 per cent while the SC/ST quota is 18 per cent.
Earlier May 30, the Karnataka government, in a cabinet meeting, had cleared the ground for issuing an ordinance to restrict the reservation matrix for the BBMP to less than 50 per cent.
The issue of reservations for Other Backward Classes in elections for local bodies has become a source of controversy in many states with the Supreme Court, in a series of recent orders, mandating OBC reservations only on the basis of new scientific data. The SC has also said that polls must be held soon for all local bodies whose five-year terms have ended.
Maharashtra recently had local polls without reservations. Madhya Pradesh convinced the court for polls with existing reservation norms. Karnataka has sought time for coming up with scientific data for reservations to hold local polls that are overdue by nearly two years in Bengaluru and by over a year in the state taluk and the zila panchayats.
The opposition Congress party in Karnataka has said the local polls that are delayed should not be held without OBC reservations. The ruling BJP has also stated that it would not like to hold the local polls in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka without OBC reservations.
Our view is that the election must not be held without reservations to OBCs because it will be a big injustice to backward communities. It will be a denial of political opportunities. This is why we carried out reservations for local bodies in 1994-95. We set aside 33 per cent but it is now 27 per cent, the former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said recently.
The Karnataka government told the Supreme Court on May 20 that it would complete the process of ward delimitation and reservation of wards for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in eight weeks to hold the pending BBMP elections.