BBMP Act notified: Bengaluru now has its own law

The state government notified the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Act on Monday, operationalising a law that is meant exclusively for Bengaluru’s governance and paving the way for a huge delimitation exercise before elections to the civic body can be held.

The Act, which was passed by the legislature, received the Governor’s assent on December 19.

With the Act notified and the Supreme Court staying the Karnataka High Court order for conducting BBMP elections to 198 wards, the government can now go ahead with a delimitation exercise to divide the city into 243 wards.

Until now, Bengaluru was governed under the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act.

Bengaluru will now have two mayors in five years - each one getting a 30-month tenure. So far, a mayor had a one-year term.

The Act proposes to divide the city into zones - up to 15 - and each one will have a committee. The Act also proposes ‘constituency consultative committees’, which is expected to give MLAs more say in the way the city is run.

The enactment of BBMP Act was widely seen as the BJP government's ploy to delay elections to the BBMP Council, whose term expired on September 10. The BJP also hopes to prepare a poll pitch for itself with the additional time.