Court tells Karnataka to hold polls at 198 BBMP wards

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council elections will only be held for 198 wards and not the proposed 243 wards, the High Court said on Friday.

Bengaluru (Karnataka): The High Court of Karnataka on Friday said that the elections to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council will have to be held only for 198 wards ignoring the government’s notification increasing the number of wards to 243.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty pronounced the judgement. This is a setback to the state government, which tried to defer the elections.

The bench clarified that the polls will be held for the existing 198 wards and not the proposed 243 wards. The bench also said that the state election authority has to announce the election schedule within six weeks.

Earlier during this case, the State Election Commission had opposed the delimitation exercise stating that the preparations for the polls for 198 wards had already begun.

The court held that the amendment brought to the KMC Act by the state government to increase the number of wards from 198 to 243 is valid but made it clear that it is not applicable to the present elections to be held for the BBMP.

It may be recalled that the five-year tenure of the present BBMP Council had expired in September and the elections for the same had been deferred for the delimitation process.

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