Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike at Hudson Circle, Bengalur. | Photo Credit: File Photos
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), who has been without the elected Council for more than three years, will soon get soon, with the Governor’s approval to the larger Bengaluru government law, 2024.
Minister of Transport and Muzrai Ramaling Reddy, spoke with Hindu, acknowledged challenges before us, and said that the exercise ordered by new legislation would require at least six months to complete. “If everything goes according to plan, BBMP elections may be made before the end of 2025,” he said.
Former councilors claim that the MLA across political parties have long been looking for excuses to postpone the elections to the BBMP, which feared the loss of control of the civil body. He claims that the law on the administration of public Bengalur (GBGA), 2024, has now provided them with a “other perfect opportunity” to postpone public opinion surveys.
Processes involved
Within the GBGA, the government is entrusted to redraw the boundaries of new corporations, by delimiting the department across several corporations and completing the reservation of seats – processes that offer space for significant delays.
According to the provisions of the law, the government is entrusted to complete these exercises and issue a notice within four months. However, many believe that this process could extend much longer and potentially stretch for at least nine months.
Meeting all parties
It is expected that the Deputy Minister and Minister of Development Bengalur DK Shivakumar convenes meetings of all parties to discuss the border drawing for new corporations-a formal step towards the implementation of GBGA. However, the former corporators rejected these meetings as “mere eye lists”, claiming that there was an unwritten understanding of the delay of the process.
Even the former Congress councilors talked about the state of anonymity, claiming that if the courts did not interfere and enforce measures, the BBMP elections unlikely to take place soon. Furthermore, they claimed that both congress and BJP are not interested in organizing elections because they prefer the administrative rule that allows them to easily interfere with civil affairs.
However, Abdul Wajid, a former councilor of Congress, welcomed the approval of the Governor to the bill and admitted that the completion of boundaries for new corporations could take at least six months. Nevertheless, it insisted that the state government is still determined to make elections at the earliest.
Published – April 26 2025 23:32 IS IS
