BBMP polls to be held in 3 months, State tells SC

The State government on Tuesday expressed its readiness before the Supreme Court to hold the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) polls within three months.

Appearing for the State, senior advocate Kapil Sibal submitted before a three-judge bench, presided over by Chief Justice H L Dattu, that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has informed that the polls would be conducted within three months.

As the panchayat polls (May 29 and June 2) are also due in the State, the BBMP elections will be held within three months, Sibal submitted at the outset. The State government’s stand is a climbdown from its earlier position where it stated that the polls would be held within six months.

The bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde and Arun Mishra, took submission of the State government into record and set aside a April 24 order of the division bench of the Karnataka High Court.

“In the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, the division bench order of the high court is set aside and the decision by the single judge bench is restored,” the bench stated.

The high court had on April 24 refused to interfere with the State’s decision to appoint an administrator to the BBMP. A single-judge bench of the high court had on March 30 directed, inter alia, that the BBMP polls should be concluded on or before May 30 and further passed directions with regard to rotation of seats for reserved categories.

NGO Namma Bengaluru foundation and corporators L Ramesh, P Sukumaran and C K Ramamurthy, asked the apex court to set aside the April 24 high court order.

Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar has also filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court seeking a stay order against the high court decision granting the State government six months time to conduct BBMP polls.

GP polls

The State Election Commission announced on Tuesday that elections to 5,844 gram panchayats in the State will be held in two phases on May 29 and June 2, reports DHNS from Bengaluru.