BENGALURU: The state government has yet again found a reason to delay holding elections to five city corporations of Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA).
This time, it has reasoned that due to the deployment of 26,616 staff to conduct the National Census (household listing), and Special Intensive Revision (SIR), it cannot take up preparatory work for the elections. The Supreme Court had ordered that elections to the five corporations be completed before June 30.
In a government proposal dated April 15, the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms secretary stated that the overlap of Census work and SIR places simultaneous demands on the administrative and field-level workforce. He was referring to earlier communication from the Greater Bengaluru Authority chief commissioner to the State Election Commission (SEC). That apart, Class 10 and 12 supplementary examinations in May-June will also require deployment of government personnel, adding to the overall administrative burden.
“Since the entire administrative and field machinery is currently engaged in the Census, and it is expected that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter list will also be carried out simultaneously in the ongoing electoral operations, I am directed to request for extension of the election deadline to September 30, 2026, to properly manage election preparations of urban local bodies of Greater Bengaluru region,” the proposal to the SEC read.
The communication comes in the backdrop of the GBA chief commissioner’s submission to the SEC and chief secretary on April 4, seeking extension. As per sources, an affidavit will now be filed before the Supreme Court, justifying the deferment of elections. TNIE had earlier reported that the government would find reasons not to delay elections.
Reacting to the development, civic activist Sandeep Anirudhan said, “The postponement of elections was expected, and we are absolutely certain that this drama will go on for a few more years. The State government will not allow elections to take place.
They haven’t allowed it for the past five years, they won’t allow it for as long as they can find excuses. The politicians of Karnataka have no interest in empowering grassroots politics in Bengaluru. That is the reason they have conducted so many delimitation exercises over the past few years, splitting of corporations and the GBA Act -- all of these were merely excuses to avoid elections.”
Chairman of Aam Aadmi Party, Bengaluru East, Ashok Mruthyunjaya slammed the government’s proposal to delay municipal elections as “murder of democracy”. We reject the use of Census operations and electoral roll revision as convenient excuses to prolong an unelected “bureaucratic raj” that avoids public accountability. While the administration claims manpower shortage due to statutory duties, this is a deliberate strategy to keep Bengaluru’s massive development funds under the exclusive control of MLAs and ministers.
The citizens of Bengaluru have been denied local representation for far too long; we demand that the State Election Commission reject this extension and restore the people’s constitutional right to an elected local government immediately, he said.
Sources in the GBA say that by September, the government may bring in internal reservation issue to further delay elections.