Empowered SEC can restore local democracy

The Karnataka State Election Commission (SEC)’s recent announcement that elections to the five city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) will be held in June 2026 offered long-awaited hope for restoring democratic governance in Bengaluru.

After years of delay, the Supreme Court in January 2026 directed that elections be completed before June 2026 ‘in all circumstances’, ruling out further extensions.

The order followed the Karnataka government’s assurance to the Court that ward delimitation and reservation exercises would be completed by March 2026, enabling election notification in May.

However, if media reports suggesting another postponement prove true, it would amount to nothing less than a grave disservice to local democracy.

Bengaluru has effectively remained without an elected city government since September 2020, when the term of the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council expired. What followed has been a prolonged constitutional limbo.

A Karnataka High Court order in December 2020 directed the SEC to conduct elections within six weeks. Yet, the state government appealed to the Supreme Court, and nearly six years later, Bengaluru still awaits an elected city council.

This prolonged vacuum represents the systematic erosion of decentralised democracy envisaged under the 74th Constitutional Amendment. It is inconceivable for Parliament or a State Assembly to remain unelected for such a long period. Yet, the prolonged absence of elected local governments has been normalised in Karnataka.

Bengaluru is not an isolated case of delayed local elections – it is merely a reflection of the deep crisis in local democracy that Karnataka has slipped into. The state, once regarded as a pioneer of decentralised local governance even before the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments, is now earning the dubious distinction of being among the least democratic states in conducting timely local government elections. Over the past decade, delays have increasingly become the rule rather than the exception.

While Bengaluru’s city elections have been stalled for nearly six years, elections to Zilla Panchayats and Taluk Panchayats across Karnataka have also remained overdue for five years. Several major city corporations – including Mysuru, Mangaluru, Tumakuru, Davanagere, and Shivamogga – have exceeded their terms by 18 to 30 months.

Nearly 200 smaller urban local governments and over 5,900 gram panchayats have also completed their terms. Repeated court interventions have failed to resolve the problem.

The SEC has moved the High Court in contempt proceedings in some instances, while the courts have imposed fines on the state government in others. Yet elections continue to remain stalled.

While the SEC may appear assertive in insisting on elections, it remains structurally too weak to independently enforce them. The SEC was established under Articles 243K and 243ZA of the Constitution through the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments in 1993. These provisions vested SECs with the “superintendence, direction and control” of local body elections – mirroring, in spirit, the authority of the Election Commission of India (ECI) for national and state polls.

In practice, however, SECs remain dependent on state governments for key election processes, staffing, and finances. Delays in ward delimitation, reservation notifications, and administrative approvals often become convenient grounds to postpone elections indefinitely.

Power through reform

CAG audits on Karnataka’s implementation of the 73rd and 74th Amendments observe that the weak institutional capacity of SECs contributed to delayed local elections. The recent NITI Aayog report on effective city governance also recommends measures to ensure timely local elections. Structural reforms to strengthen the SEC are urgently required by effecting changes to the state panchayat raj and municipal laws.

First, ward delimitation and reservation powers must be vested in an independent constitutional authority such as the SEC rather than the state government. Karnataka had vested these powers in the SEC for its rural local governments until amendments in 2021 withdrew them. For urban local governments, the SEC never had these powers.

Second, delimitation and reservation exercises should be legally mandated at fixed intervals – once every ten years following the Census – and not altered in between. Frequent revisions have often resulted in delays in routine democratic functioning.

Third, the appointment of State Election Commissioners must become more transparent and bipartisan. A high-level committee comprising the Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, and the Chief Justice of the High Court should make the appointments, replacing the state government's current practice of nomination.

Fourth, the SEC must be given staffing and financial autonomy, with its expenditure charged directly to the Consolidated Fund of the state.

Fifth, the SEC should submit annual reports to the Governor detailing election preparedness, timelines, delays, and the reasons for postponement. These reports should be mandatorily tabled in the state legislature to bring transparency and accountability into a process currently marked by opacity.

Stalled local elections deprive citizens of their right to an accountable and responsive local government on which they rely for quality public infrastructure, services, and safety. Repeated judicial intervention cannot remain the default mechanism for restoring local democracy. Karnataka can reclaim its leadership in decentralised governance by strengthening the SEC and effecting related reforms so that elections occur not when governments find them convenient, but before the expiry of constitutionally mandated five-year terms.

(The writer is Director, Policy Engagement, at Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.