Bengaluru's 5 new corporations all set to get 368 wards

Bengaluru: Bengaluru’s five newly carved out corporations will encompass a total of 368 wards, according to the draft delimited wards published by the Karnataka government on Tuesday, nearly a month after it dissolved the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

This will pave way for holding the much-delayed elections to the five municipal corporations.

However, there is still some uncertainty about when the elections will finally be held, as ward reservations remain another sticky issue that has previously held up the elections.

According to the draft notification, the wards are distributed as follows: Bengaluru Central will have 50 wards, Bengaluru East 63 wards, Bengaluru North 72 wards, Bengaluru South 72 wards, and Bengaluru West, the largest, with 111 wards.

Citizens have been given 15 days to raise any objections.

While the government has shared the names of roads to outline the boundaries in the draft notification, it is yet to make public the Assembly constituency-wise breakup of wards, as well as the map to make it visually easier to understand the new wards.

Based on 2023 data, the average population of a ward in corporations such as Central, West, North, and South will be around 40,000.

Bengaluru East City Corporation – which covers just two Assembly constituencies – will have an average population of 26,000 per ward.

However, this corporation has a large migrant population.

This is the third time the ward boundaries have been modified since the now-dissolved BBMP held elections a decade ago.

In July 2022, the BJP-led government carved out BBMP into 243 wards, up from 198 wards.

The Congress, which came to power in the state, reduced the number to 225 the following year. Sources in the government said formalities such as issuing the final notification for the newly carved wards and reservations would be completed by the end of this year.

However, they added that the elections to the five corporations may be held only by mid-next year.

While the total number of wards in the Greater Bengaluru Area (GBA) has increased by 170 compared to the 2015 elections, the outer area of the now-dissolved BBMP has remained the same.

The government has split almost all the existing wards to redraw boundaries for the 368 wards.

Some ex-councillors have mentioned that their wards have been redistributed across four to six new wards.