The Karnataka government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that the Bengaluru civic body polls would be held in November this year. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which has been split into five city corporations by enacting a new law – Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024 (GBA Act), will need to carry out a massive exercise before holding the polls.
The five new corporations, which were notified on July 19, will come under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) which was notified on May 15. The delimitation of wards across all five corporations and fixing reservation (including women and OBC) for each ward needs to be carried out before the State Election Commission can notify the civic polls.
BBMP polls elusive since September 2020
It may be recalled that the BBMP elections were last held in August 2015 and with the term of the last BBMP Council expiring in September 2020, then Yediurappa-led BJP government proposed a new BBMP Act and increasing the wards from 198 to 243. The Bommai government set up the Bhaktavatsala commission to work out OBC quota. The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government carried out a fresh delimitation and decreased the number of wards to 225 and accepted some of the recommendations including 33 per cent reservation for OBCs in local body polls. The BJP government chose to appoint an administrator instead of conducting elections, citing Covid-19 and pending ward delimitation.
In December 2020, the state government passed the BBMP Act, 2020 increasing the number of wards from 198 to 243, which mandated new delimitation and reservation exercise before polls.
Despite the many PILs in the Karnataka High Court demanding immediate conduct of the civic polls, the government delayed the polls. In March 2022, the high court directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct the elections soon after the reservation process was complete. However, the government notified the final ward reservation list only a year later.
The Opposition parties and citizen groups challenged the reservation list alleging violation of rotation principles and flaws in OBC allocation. Subsequently, the Supreme Court stayed the conduct of BBMP polls until the legality of reservation process was sorted.
The Congress party, which came to power in 2023, passed the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024 (GBA Act), proposing division of BBMP into five corporations, zone-level governance, and planning by a Greater Bengaluru Authority.
The civil society groups alleged it was a “ploy” to further delay the elections and to disempower the local bodies.
Fresh petitions were filed both in the Supreme Court and Karnataka High Court challenging the GBA Act, leading to the apex court pulling up the state government for not holding elections for over four years.
'For the greater good of Bengaluru city'
Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, who is also the Bengaluru development minister, said, “We will submit an affidavit to the Supreme Court on holding the civic polls. The formation of GBA is for the greater good of Bengaluru city. The decision (for formation of five corporations) was taken keep in mind the geographical, administrative and financial aspects.”
Previously, the court had observed that delay in elections is a clear violation of Article 243 U (mandatory five-year term).
The State Election Commission had stated that if it had the powers to carry out delimitation and OBC reservation matrix, there would be no scope for delay in conducting the polls. However, the citizen groups and the former corporators allege it is a ploy by the legislators and the state government to control the city and the annual budget of Rs 10,000 crore. In the absence of corporators, the MLAs will have a greater control over the officers and also the development projects and funds, reasoned a former corporator.
BBMP bifurcation and other challenges
The BJP MLAs have opposed the formation of the corporations stating that the Assembly constituency being divided between two or more corporations, would confuse the voters.
Also, the process of delimitation of wards in each corporation, and fixing the reservation list would take longer as each corporation might have more than a 100 wards. Besides, the mammoth exercise of mobilising staff and infrastructure for the 15-odd departments under each corporation make it a daunting task to commit to the polls in November.
"There's a delay, no doubt. But an Act (GBA) of the Legislature was held back by the Governor for a few months. By November, the elections will be held as per the new Act and reservations,” informed the state’s counsel before the divisional bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi on July 28.
The Court has directed the state government to file a formal affidavit giving a timeline of the different exercises to be undertaken such as bifurcation, delimitation, revision, reservation and preparation of voters' list.
The BBMP has reported a fall in revenues (from property tax and advertisement fee) of up to ₹2,500 crore annually since 2020 and depends on government grants for its sustenance.
The BBMP presented a Budget for 2025-26 with an outlay of ₹19,930 crore (scaled down to ₹18,120 crore by the Urban development department), while the state government has allocated a grant of ₹7,000 crore.
The citizens groups have been flagging off white-topping projects being awarded without public consultation, potholed roads, increase in garbage black spots and clogged stormwater drains. The slow progress of road works, delay in execution of Smart City projects and massive pending bills of contractors are only reflection of a crumbling civic infrastructure and lack of accountability.