Bengaluru’s ward delimitation saga

The new delimitation exercise is supposed to fix the disparity in ward sizes and population in the city. But the ground reality maybe markedly different

On Thursday, the State government notified the draft of the newly delimited 243 wards of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The number of wards has increased from 198 to 243, with the civic body carving out 45 new wards in the existing area itself. The government has provided 15 days time to submit any objections to the draft. 

The previous BBMP council’s term ended on September 10, 2020 and for almost two years, the city administration was run by bureaucrats. Critics argue that the elections were postponed deliberately by the ruling BJP to fortify the positions of its MLAs, who have been calling the shots in Bengaluru in the absence of a civic body.

With the delay in conducting polls, two former councillors Abdul Wajid and M. Shivaraju had filed a petition before the High Court of Karnataka seeking early polls to the BBMP. The State Election Commission had then gone to court citing incapability to hold polls due to delay in completing the delimitation and fixing reservation.

Meanwhile, the State Government brought in the BBMP Act, 2020, and increased the number of wards from 198 to 243. The High Court, however, ruled that the polls should be held for 198 wards. The Government then appealed against the High Court order in the Supreme Court, which then stayed the matter.

On May 10, the Supreme Court directed State Election Commissions across the country to conduct polls to the local bodies every five years. But in the BBMP’s case, owing to the stay on civic body polls issued by the apex court itself, the SEC had approach the SC and file an application seeking that the stay on the implementation of the Karnataka HC order be vacated so that BBMP polls could be held.

On May 20, the Supreme Court directed the State government to expedite the BBMP polls. Observing that the elections are crucial and are seen by many as a precursor to the Karnataka Assembly polls (due in 2023), it accepted the State government’s submission seeking eight weeks time to finalise delimitation of wards and fix OBC reservation.

The court also ordered that the SEC could begin its preparatory exercise within one week of the notification of delimitation of wards or determination of OBC reservation, whichever of the two comes later.