Karnataka govt reduces BBMP wards to 225 amid election preparations

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government, on Monday, officially released the definitive list of wards within the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) region.

Following a period of public input, the state government issued an order to set the number of BBMP wards at 225. This marks a reduction from the previous count of 243 wards, a decision initially implemented during the tenure of the previous BJP government.

Notably, in August, the Congress government introduced a new gazette notification, initiating the process of redrawing ward boundaries for the second time in two years.

Sources suggest that the Congress gover nment, already preparing for the Lok Sabha elections, is gearing up for the BBMP elections ahead of the national polls, with plans to conduct them in December.

The High Court hearing multiple petitions challenging the earlier delimitation exercise and a petition seeking early polls to the civic body, had set a 12-week deadline to re-do the exercise. The State government has now complied with the deadline.

The government notification stated, “In exercise of the powers conferred in clause (a) of sub-section (3) of Section 7 of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, 2020, the number of councillors of the BBMP has been fixed as 225 by withdrawing the notification dated, January 29, 2021, in which the number of councillors of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike was fixed as 243.”

Chaired by the Additional Chief Secretary of the Urban Development Department, the government has approved the recommendations put forth by the Review Committee.

Consequently, the redistribution of wards within the Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation, based on the 2011 census, has been officially concluded and is outlined as follows: The total number of wards within the Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation is now established at 225 (two hundred and twenty-five).

Detailed information regarding the number and names of each ward can be found in column 2 of Annexure-1 (in the Kannada language) and column 2 of Annexure-2 (in the English language).

Precise demarcations of ward boundaries are provided in column 4 of both Annexure-1 and Annexure-2. The new delimitation was done based on the 2011 population census and an average size of 37,000 people/ward.