Government mulls delimitation, BBMP polls set to be delayed

With the BBMP elections around the corner, the Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday discussed the possibility of increasing the number of wards from 198 to 225, which could alter political equations at the ground level.

The new wards will include some areas outside the city's municipal limits and the exercise is expected to delay elections for the civic body. Elections to the Bengaluru civic body are due, but the state government is dilly-dallying citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Cabinet also discussed a proposal to increase the number of zones in the BBMP limits from the existing 8 to 15.

However, a final call on the issue will be taken by the Joint Select Committee formed to discuss the new BBMP Bill that was tabled in the Assembly, Law Minister J C Madhuswamy said. The meeting of the house panel is scheduled for Friday.

He was responding to a question on appointing an administrator to the Palike as the tenure of the BBMP council ends in September.

"The government's thinking is to increase wards, with a population of around 40,000-42,000 per ward. If we must take up the delimitation exercise, we have to petition the high court to postpone the elections by a short period. Since the term of the corporators ends in September, we will submit our view to the court before their tenure ends," he said.

Some new areas will be added to the BBMP limits and areas for new zones headed by a commissioner will be demarcated. "The petition in the high court had sought to announce a reservation list for the wards to conduct elections. We are prepared for that. There is also a demand to increase ward numbers as wards were not delimited consistently," he said.

While the population per ward could be marginally higher in densely populated regions inside the city, population will be relatively lower in peripheral areas. There have been several suggestions from MLAs of various parties in the committee regarding how delimitation has to be taken up. All the suggestions will be discussed and a decision will be finalised on Friday, he added.

BJP's CV Raman Nagar MLA S Raghu heads the joint legislature committee looking into the BBMP Bill that promises a five-year term for the mayor, up to 15 zones for the city and area sabhas comprising voters.