Former corporators to approach Karnataka High Court over BBMP election delays

Bengaluru: With the Congress-led state government showing no signs of holding the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections, a group of former corporators is planning to approach the Karnataka High Court to seek legal intervention.

The former corporators suspect that the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, tabled in the Legislative Assembly last month, is a tactic to further delay the civic body elections.

Bengaluru last elected its corporators in August 2015.

“The reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) has been a contentious issue, especially after the Supreme Court ruled against it due to lack of scientific data. We met with former corporators to discuss the situation. In the meeting, we decided to approach the court as successive governments have delayed the polls for various reasons,” said NR Ramesh, a former BJP corporator.

Ramesh said 87 of the 225 wards might lose OBC reservation, but he stressed that it is high time the government holds the BBMP elections.

“Some OBC leaders are not happy with our decision to go to court, but we see no other way out,” he added.

During the BJP’s rule in the state, two former Congress corporators — N Shivaraju and Abdul Wajid — had approached the high court to push for the BBMP elections soon after the corporators’ term ended in September 2020.

When the government challenged the court’s order to hold elections immediately, the two former corporators took the matter to the Supreme Court.

In May 2022, the Supreme Court directed the government to hold the BBMP elections within eight weeks by notifying ward reservations and the OBC quota percentage.

However, the BJP government delayed the election, citing the need to prepare an OBC quota report, which was finally submitted in October 2023.

Last month, the Karnataka Congress formed a five-member team, each headed by a former mayor, to submit a preliminary report on holding the BBMP elections.

The team is expected to assess the mood of party workers and gather opinions on the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill.

“The government is keen on holding the BBMP elections. While we await court orders, the government also feels the need to restructure the civic body, as managing Bengaluru has become increasingly difficult,” said Sampath Raj, former mayor and head of one of the committees. “Our party workers also want the BBMP elections to be held.”

A former corporator mentioned that the government must hold elections because officers are not addressing the grievances of citizens.

“Many people need issues like streetlights, water supply, sanitation and potholes to be resolved. MLAs do not have time for these matters. Each ward needs a leader to address these concerns,” the former corporator said.