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With the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act set to come into force, having received the Governor’s assent last week, municipal elections in the city – last held 10 years ago – are set to be delayed further. Sources said that the polls are unlikely to be held before the end of this year or early 2026.
The Act proposes the splitting of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) into “up to seven” smaller corporations. As per sources, the Congress government in the state is inclined towards three corporations in the Greater Bengaluru Area, with the Act setting a deadline of 120 days – or August this year – to earmark the boundaries. From 25 in BBMP, the total number of wards may go up to as many as 300.
The control of the BBMP is much coveted as it controls infrastructure and governance in the rapidly growing Bengaluru. It last saw elections in August 2015, with the corporation’s term ending in September 2020. Since that time, the BBMP has been headed by senior IAS officers appointed by the state government as administrators.
The Greater Bengaluru Area, restricted to Bengaluru Urban district, will comprise the existing BBMP wards, and developed and developing gram panchayats around it. Later this week, Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D K Shivakumar is scheduled to hold preliminary discussions with representatives of all parties, and experts and stakeholders, to chart out the area’s boundaries.
Apart from the redrawing of boundaries, a delimitation exercise is to be completed before the municipal corporation elections can be held as the last exercise, carried out in 2023 – after several hiccups – has been rendered invalid by the new Act. Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad, who headed the Joint Legislative Committee that examined the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, told The Indian Express: “When the corporation is itself being restructured, there will be fresh wards.”
The opposition by the BJP and JD(S) to the Act is expected to further delay the process. During the discussion in the Assembly on the legislation, the parties had said it would end up “destroying” the city. Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka said splitting the BBMP into smaller corporations would create pockets of uneven growth. “Areas such as Mahadevapura, K R Puram or Hebbal will generate more tax revenue compared to parts of old Bengaluru where IT companies are not present,” he said.
Ashoka also said that pro-Kannada groups oppose the move as the influence of Kannada might weaken due to the legislation.
Shivakumar, who piloted the Bill, said change is required because the government is “not able to change the existing system” in Bengaluru, with the city growing in a haphazard manner. He cited the surge in population of Bengaluru from 70 lakh to 1.4 crore in a little more than two decades.
The plan to restructure the BBMP was first floated in November 2014, during Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s earlier term in the chair. A Bill was brought to split it but had to be shelved after the BJP protested. In 2018, another effort was made with a draft Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, but it went into cold storage after the Congress lost power.
Soon after the party won the Assembly elections and Siddaramaiah became the CM again, he set up a committee on the issue in June 2023. In June 2024, the panel submitted a draft of the Bill. It proposed the establishment of a Greater Bengaluru Authority for coordinating and supervising the development of the Greater Bengaluru Area and proposed up to seven city corporations “for effective, participatory and responsive governance”.
Calling the Bill “unscientific” and expressing apprehension of “uneven distribution”, the BJP walked out in protest when it was passed.
