The outgoing State government under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delayed holding civic polls in the city by over two and a half years, citing their efforts to revamp the city’s governance with a new dedicated Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Act, 2020. Now that Congress is all set to take office, hopes of an immediate civic election, seem to be a mirage again, as Congress, that had opposed the BBMP Act, 2020 terming it a “missed opportunity to fix Bengaluru”, has promised to bring in a new law for city governance.
It can be recalled that multiple Congress MLAs in the standing committee led by S. Raghu, BJP MLA, which reviewed the BBMP Act, 2020, did not sign the committee’s recommendations in protest against the Draft Bill.
In its manifesto, Congress has promised that a new BBMP law will bring all service providers, such as water supply and sewage, transport, housing, power and development authorities, under a single agency. The proposal was welcomed by several civic activists, if these parastatals are made answerable to BBMP. However, sources in Congress said all the various parastatals in the city will be brought under one agency chaired by the Chief Minister.
“The BBMP Act, 2020 was done in a hurry and did little to fix the governance problem of the city. It was a copy-paste job of Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 with some light tinkering. Except for increasing the number of wards from 198 to 243, it did very little. There is no decentralisation in the Act,” said Krishna Byre Gowda, senior Congress MLA, who was a member of the standing committee and did not sign on the recommendations in protest.
It can be recalled that the previous Congress government had formed the BBMP Restructuring Committee, which had recommended to split BBMP into multiple corporations and have a Greater Bengaluru Authority under the CM in 2015. The new agency, Congress manifesto talks of, is hinting at the same. The courts had then not allowed the government to postpone civic polls, which postponed the BBMP Act by five years. “Now, though there is a BBMP Act, 2020, it does precious little. If we do not bring in a new law before the civic polls, we will end up postponing fixing the city governance by another five years, as the law cannot be brought mid-term of a council elected under the old law,” said another senior Congress MLA in the city, arguing that anyway the city didn’t have civic polls in two and a half years and a few more months to “fix the city governance” would do it little harm.
Other hurdles too
Earlier in June 2022, Congress had opposed the delimitation of 243 new wards and reservation list announced by the BJP government. Senior Congress leaders had alleged that the delimitation of wards was carried out “at RSS offices” and was deliberately done in such a way so as to help BJP. The delimitation has sparked opposition from even within BJP, as Satish Reddy, Bommanahalli BJP MLA, had approached the High Court against it.
Abdul Wajeed, a former councillor from Congress, who had waged a legal battle demanding immediate elections to BBMP, said that once the new government is formed, they would appeal to them to review the delimitation exercise carried out by the previous BJP and redo it with a scientific approach.
Political compulsions may also push civic polls
Though BJP has lost its vote share across the State, it has improved its vote share significantly by 5.4% despite an anti-incumbency wave against the Basavaraj Bommai-led government, making BJP bullish in the city. “BJP may now turn aggressive in pushing for the civic polls, as they have retained a lead and improved their vote share in the city. But holding civic polls during monsoons is a recipe for disaster. Any small flooding will have a big impact,” said a senior Congress leader.
