800 file nominations for Bengaluru civic body polls

At least 800 candidates from mainstream political parties, independents and rebels have filed nominations for the August 22 city corporation elections.

As Monday was the last day for filing the papers for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) polls, there was a heavy rush of candidates at returning offices in all the 198 civic wards across the city to meet the deadline.

"We are still collecting details on how many candidates have filed papers in each ward due to last-minute scramble for B form and entry of rebels in the fray," state election commissioner P.N. Srinivasachary told reporters here..

Though Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal-Secular claimed they would contest from all wards, delimitation of many wards and 50 percent reservation for women have queered the pitch for fielding winnable candidates.

"A clear picture on how many are contesting will emerge after scrutiny on Tuesday and withdrawal of candidature on Thursday, as many from the mainstream parties and independents filed papers," Srinivasachary said.

The poll panel has also directed the returning officers in the respective wards to reject nominations of 30 former corporators who did not declare expenditure incurred in the 2010 civic elections.

BBMP commissioner G. Kumar Naik notified the civic polls on August 3 after the state poll panel re-scheduled them from July 28 following the Supreme Court's July 4 order, granting eight more weeks on the state government's request to complete the ward delimitation as per the 2011 population census.

The century-old BBMP was expanded in 2007 by including seven city municipal councils and one town municipal council and 111 surrounding villages to increase civic wards from 100 to 198.

In the previous house, BJP ruled the civic body for the first time by winning in 116 wards, as against 62 wards by Congress, 14 by JD-S and eight by independents.

The state government superseded the BJP-led BBMP council on April 18, four days before its term lapsed on April 22.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided not to contest in the civic polls in protest against the state government's decision to split the BBMP into three bodies by amending the Karnataka Municipalities Act recently.