If BJP had Trust in Democracy they wouldn’t have Delayed MCC Elections – Ivan D’Souza
Mangaluru: “The MCC elections will be held on November 12 and the date has been finalized. The elections are taking place after 7 months. According to the law, Local Body elections should be held soon after or before the Assembly or Lok Sabha elections. But the Local Body elections were delayed for 7 months because the BJP questioned the reservations. If the BJP had trust in democracy they would not have delayed the MCC elections”, said MLC Ivan D’Souza in a press meet held at the DCC office here on October 26.
Addressing the mediapersons Ivan said, “The BJP leaders questioned the reservation system and went to the court. When they submitted the appeal to the court, the single bench also said that the reservation was correct. The BJP also appealed to the Division Bench and said that the reservation system was not right and suggested to hold the elections by November 15 and later again submitted a review petition. When I questioned in the Assembly the delay of 7 months for holding the MCC elections, the MLA said that the elections will be held soon. In order to delay the elections, they went to the Supreme court but the SC dismissed their application. The BJP does not want the Local body elections, they want only their people to contest the elections. According to the reservation policy, 50 percent of the candidates contesting the elections should be women.”
Ivan further said, “During our tenure, all the corporators worked for the development of their respective wards. In the last MCC elections, the Congress party won 35 seats. This time our candidates will contest in all the 60 wards and we are sure of winning by a majority. We have received 250 applications for the 60 seats. The KPCC leaders will finalize the names as the selection of candidates is in process. Five observers from KPCC will come to Mangaluru. On October 25, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao held a meeting with the party workers in Suratkal. We have fulfilled all the promises made in our manifesto during the last MCC elections. We had assured of constructing markets and 10 markets are under construction. In the history of Karnataka for the first time, the Congress government spent Rs 70 crore for the Suratkal market. All the income from the Suratkal market will go to the government. During our tenure, we increased the Thumbay vented dam height to 7 meters to provide uninterrupted drinking water for the people of Mangaluru”.
Congress leaders Shahul Hamid, Sashidhar Hegde, Mohammed Nazir, Jayasheel and others were also present.
