Mixed Recation on Agni - NGO providing information to the public about educated candidates with a clean image in BMC election.
For the elections to th
e Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) held on February 1,Mumbaikars have elected 21 out of 64 candidates, who have criminal cases pending against them.
And of the total 75 candidates with five star ratings only 11 have managed to win. And ironically in many of the wards, they have been also defeated by candidates with one-star or two star ratings.
It seems that voters of Mumbai have not cared to vote on the basis of star ratings provided with Action for good Governance and Networking in India (AGNI)- a NGO that was involved with providing information to the public about educated candidates with a clean image.
The BMC election results was a mix bag for NGO AGNI (Action for Good Governance and Networking in India), which had initiated various campaigns to bring reforms in the BMC elections
D M Sukhtankar, former BMC Commissioner and Vice Chairman, AGNI, said, We are very happy that our efforts were well received. Due to our ratings people got a better idea to choose and make an informed choice.
He further said, In this election I think the Marathi card of the Sena BJP worked out. Their sentiments of not jeopardise the Marathi status in Mumbai, they voted for the saffron alliance. But we are unhappy that voting percentage couldn't increase at that level as of our expectations. AGNI has rated all the candidates contesting the election in BMC by awarding them, the stars between one and five. These star ratings were on the basis of candidates education, assets and criminal records. This move of the AGNI, at the initial stage was criticised by the political parties and they were not ready to provide their candidates information to AGNI.
Also there were many people who claimed that they didn't get their voting cards at all. The people complained that during the last election all the political parties had dropped their voting
cards to each home. However, this time, the residents seemed confused after they didn't receive
their voting cards.
Sources in the BMC's election department said that the voting cards have been issued to every
political parties and it is the responsibility of the respective parties to distribute them.Also there are cases where Representing Youth For Equality (YFE), the students were protesting the rating system by the NGO undertaken to judge candidates contesting BMC elections.
posted by Rishil Babu @ 5:38 AM,
