New Bengaluru ward map sparks political row over population mismatch

The ink is barely dry on Bengaluru’s new ward map, but the population mismatch is already glaring: some wards house nearly 10,000 more residents than others.

This is significant because average ward size itself is about 21,000. The imbalance could influence electoral outcomes, tilt civic budgets and cripple equitable development.

While the delimitation commission insists it has followed the population criterion fixed by government, BJP MLAs argue that the redivision was ‘engineered’ to ensure victory of Congress candidates in the yet-to-be-scheduled civic body polls.

Earlier this week, Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) published population figures of all 368 wards, along with constituency-wise breakup of wards and maps.

Data shows the population of wards ranges from as few as 13,969 residents to 29,704 across the five new corporations.

Former councillor N R Ramesh said the Congress had won only two wards under Jayanagar Assembly constituency in the last, now-dissolved, BBMP.

‘M’ factor

“After new delimitation, it hopes to win six wards. This is being done by distributing Muslim and slum voters of Guruvappanapalya, Tilak Nagar, and Bismillah Nagar across different wards. By this, wards have become shapeless and interior roads, instead of major corridors, have been used as boundary markers,” he said. RR Nagar MLA N Munirathna, whose constituency has been split across three corporations, said wards like JP Park and Yeshwantpur — where Muslims are predominant — are smaller in size compared to other wards with a large Hindu population.

“This is being done to increase winnability of Congress candidates while suppressing the voice of the majority community”.

He said the newly carved Bangarappa Nagara ward in Bengaluru South and the RR Nagar ward in Bengaluru West each have about 40,000 voters — nearly twice the average ward size.

Rajajinagar MLA Suresh Kumar said the delimitation had damaged the low-income group pockets of Saneguruvanahalli, which has now been split across multiple wards “just in the hope of winning polls”.

Former MLA of Mahadevapura Aravind Limbavali opposed the move to take Bellandur out of Mahadevapura and place it under Bengaluru South Corporation. “If revenue is the issue, can Kolar district be brought under Bengaluru?,” he
said. 

He said Doddanekundi — which is a single layout — has been split across three wards, creating hardship for residents.

Third, he said, one booth of Marathahalli, which falls inside the Ring Road, has been brought under Panathur. “This is unscientific,” Limbavali said. 

Yelahanka MLA S R Vishwanath believes delimitation will lead to further delay in civic body polls.

“Generally, polling booths are kept intact while drawing ward boundaries. In the latest exercise, officials have divided booths. This will lead to lot of problems like corrections in electoral rolls, which is not easy and may eventually delay polls,” he said. 

A senior official of the delimitation commission said the window to file objections was still open & inputs would be considered
proactively.