BENGALURU: With no elected representative in the Bengaluru Municipal Council since 2020, rendering the civic authorities unable to respond promptly to the needs of the people, the East Bengaluru Citizens Movement has launched a 100-day social media campaign calling for early elections to the Municipal Council. The campaign entered its 24th day on Friday. The group is posting daily on social media to spread its call for early elections to the Bengaluru Municipal Council. The daily posts include images and videos highlighting the infrastructural deficiencies plaguing East Bengaluru. Various RWAs across the city are supporting the East Bengaluru Citizens Movement and urging Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to hold the elections. “Bengaluru Municipal Council elections are a must but for the last four years, they have not been held. There is no councillor to whom complaints can be addressed. “Bengaluru is spread over a large area and one MLA cannot manage all the wards and monitor developments,” said Mithilesh Kumar, a member of the East Bengaluru Citizens Movement. “Funds allocated to MLAs for development works will not address urgent issues but councillors can use the allocated funds for dedicated and area specific development,” Kumar added. The group has started a 100-day challenge on social media and hopes that the government will take notice and hold elections. “We hope that there will be some progress towards building a council to ensure committed leadership,” Kumar said. He highlighted many issues in East Bengaluru like bad roads, poor street lights, traffic congestion and waste segregation issues that are causing inconvenience to locals especially in Sarjapur, Varthur, Bellandur, Whitefield and neighbouring areas. The East Bengaluru Citizens Movement has garnered support from RWAs in the city. Sneha Nandihar of ‘I Change Indiranagar’ believes that a lot is being delayed due to a reality that is far from ideal. “There is a lot of political compulsion leading to a lot of corruption. It is about time we held assembly elections. No MLA or MP understands the redevelopment of BDA and its impact on local residents but a councillor would have understood and stood by us,” Nandihar told TOI. Sharmila Vanikkar, member of Arekere Residents Welfare Association, told TOI: “Bagya Lakshmi, former councillor from Arekere ward, would have listened to us patiently during her term. MLAs do not listen to people’s pleas and it is not easy to depend on them for everything. We need councillors.” Vinod Jacob, chairman of Nama Bengaluru Foundation, said, “This long gap between elections has weakened the governance structure in Bengaluru. The second-largest municipal corporation after Mumbai, Bengaluru is facing the problem of not having elected representatives to manage ward-level issues,” Jacob said.
