Kolar MP doesn’t want to give up corporator's position

Bengaluru’s Kadugodi ward corporator S Muniswamy who got elected as Lok Sabha member from Kolar has decided to continue as a corporator as well. An ambiguity in the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, which does not explain what a corporator should do if elected as an MLA/MP seems to be working in his favour.
“There is no rule that prevents an MP (member of Parliament) from holding on to the post of corporator. I need not resign as a corporator. I will only stop accepting allowances that I used to get as a corporator,” S Muniswamy told ET.

His decision has, however, raised eyebrows with many wondering why he prefers to retain the municipal councillor’s job when a larger role as an MP would be more demanding on his time and energy in one of India’s most backward districts, Kolar. Muniswamy bags the credit of being the first Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) corporator to get elected as an MP. The BJP leadership fielded the little-known Muniswamy against Congress veteran KH Muniyappa, who was seeking re-election for the eighth time. Riding high on the Modi wave, coupled with an internal dissidence against Muniyappa within the constituency and the broken alliance between the Congress and JD(S), Muniswamy won with a margin of 2.1 lakh votes.

While Muniswamy is the only sitting corporator to get elected as an MP, a few corporators in the past have been elected as MLAs while still serving the BBMP. Former MLAs K Chandrashekhar and NL Narendra Swamy, sitting MLAs Munirathna and Byrathi Basavaraj were elected as MLAs in their previous term when they were still corporators. And all four of them continued to hold both positions simultaneously.

Basavanapura corporator K Poornima won the 2018 Assembly election from Hiriyur in Chitradurga. She, too, has not resigned her corporator’s post.

Without clarity on how to deal with these cases, BBMP officials have left it to the elected representative to take a call.

Muniswamy’s decision to hold on to both the posts underlines the need for clarity in the KMC Act. Besides, it has also raised questions over the intention behind the elected representative’s decision to retain both the posts. Many say it is only appropriate that a corporator give up his post on being elected as an MLA or MP.

“It makes sense if MLAs and MPs continue to serve as ex-officio members in the corporation. But I am astonished why a person elected to the Parliament, the country’s highest policy making body, would want to remain as a member of the corporation” said K Jairaj, retired IAS officer who has served as the BBMP Commissioner.