Bengaluru: Even before the city’s civic poll machinery cranks up, Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party (BNP) on Friday announced its preparedness to contest in the upcoming GBA (Greater Bengaluru Authority) polls by focusing on decentralised and citizen-led governance.BNP challenged the GBA’s centralised governance model and pitched empowered ‘area sabhas’ as the most effective mechanism to address neighbourhood-level civic issues. The party also announced the launch of its ‘Mission 50′ campaign, stating its intent to win at least 50 wards in the elections.BNP founder and general secretary Srikanth Narasimhan said the key theme of the party’s pitch is the entry of professionals and first-time candidates into electoral politics. Its current leadership and candidate pool has educated individuals drawn from diverse professional backgrounds, including seven engineers, three MBA graduates, seven postgraduates, eight bachelor’s degree holders, one PhD holder, one doctoral scholar, and one medical doctor. Most of them, the party said, are political first-timers motivated by civic work rather than party careers.BNP leaders argued that Bengaluru’s civic problems — from potholes and poor last-mile connectivity to flooding, waste management, and footpath encroachments — require managerial discipline and local accountability rather than top-down control. The party said it has already activated ward teams and ‘area sabha’ leaderships across more than 75 wards, even without elected representatives.
