Exclusive: Karnataka Govt Mulls Reducing Bengaluru’s Five Civic Corporations to Three Ahead of Polls
Bengaluru, July 22: Even before elections are held to the newly created city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), the Karnataka Government is learnt to be considering another major restructuring of Bengaluru’s civic administration, with highly placed sources indicating that the number of corporations could be reduced from five to either three or two.
Highly placed sources in the Chief Minister’s Office told The Bengaluru Live that discussions are currently at a preliminary stage and no final decision has been taken. However, the proposal is being examined in the backdrop of internal political assessments and the prolonged delay in conducting civic elections in Bengaluru.
The proposal, if approved, would effectively alter the structure created under the Greater Bengaluru Authority Act, under which the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was replaced by the GBA and five city corporations were proposed:
- Bengaluru North City Corporation
- Bengaluru South City Corporation
- Bengaluru East City Corporation
- Bengaluru West City Corporation
- Bengaluru Central City Corporation
According to the sources, one option under discussion is to merge the existing five corporations into three corporations broadly aligned with the Parliamentary constituencies of Bengaluru North, Bengaluru Central and Bengaluru South. Another proposal being explored is to create only two corporations — Bengaluru North and Bengaluru South.
The discussions, sources said, are centred around administrative restructuring ahead of the long-pending civic elections.
The tenure of the elected Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council ended in September 2020. Under the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, elections are ordinarily expected after the completion of the council’s five-year term.
However, Bengaluru has remained under administrative control ever since.
The delay began during the previous BJP government and has continued under the Congress government. During his tenure as Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Bengaluru Development, D.K. Shivakumar had repeatedly stated that civic elections would be conducted after completing governance reforms. Even after assuming office as Chief Minister, the elections are yet to be notified.
Supreme Court Monitoring the Delay
The prolonged delay has been under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court, where petitions seeking early elections have been heard on multiple occasions.
During earlier proceedings, the apex court had fixed July 31, 2026, as the timeline for conducting the elections.
However, in the latest hearing, Greater Bengaluru Authority Chief Commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao informed the Supreme Court through an affidavit that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls required additional time before elections could be conducted.
Accepting the submission, the Supreme Court granted time until December 2026, effectively pushing the civic elections beyond this year.
Internal Survey Sparks Fresh Deliberations
According to highly placed sources, the Congress leadership recently reviewed an internal assessment of Bengaluru’s urban political landscape.
The assessment reportedly suggested that if elections were held to all five proposed city corporations in their present form, the BJP could emerge victorious in all five corporations.
The reported findings are understood to have triggered fresh discussions within the government on whether the present civic structure should be revisited before elections are eventually held.
The Bengaluru Live could not independently verify the findings of the internal assessment. The State Government has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such a survey.
High Political Stakes
Bengaluru remains the BJP’s strongest urban bastion in Karnataka. The party currently represents all three Lok Sabha constituencies in the city — Bengaluru North, Bengaluru Central and Bengaluru South — making the civic elections politically significant for both the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP.
Highly placed sources told The Bengaluru Live that the proposal is likely to gather momentum by August or September 2026 as the State Government prepares its next course of action before the Supreme Court. According to the sources, the government is expected to place fresh administrative developments before the Court through a subsequent affidavit while seeking additional time to complete the ongoing electoral and administrative exercise. Sources further indicated that a revised civic structure, including the possibility of reducing the number of city corporations from five to three or two, is among the options currently under active consideration.
No official proposal has yet been placed in the public domain, and the State Government has made no formal announcement regarding any restructuring of Bengaluru’s civic governance framework.
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