BBMP council polls in December, number of wards may reduce from 243

BENGALURU: While the Congress government is making preparations to conduct the elections to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council in December, it is likely that the number of wards will be reduced from 243, which was planned during the previous BJP government.

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy recently hinted that the Congress government is planning to reduce the number of wards during the delimitation process before the elections are held.

The elections to the BBMP council have not been held for about three years now. A delimitation commission was set up during the BJP rule to increase the number of wards from 198 to 243, but now, it may be reduced to 225 wards. Conducting the BBMP election was also one of the issues in the Congress manifesto.

Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy said the BBMP election will be held in December.

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy cryptically said the number of wards may increase or decrease, but added that they will not interfere with the newly set up delimitation commission, unlike the BJP.

“The number of ward will be anywhere between 225 and 250. We will not interfere with the delimitation commission. The BJP previously did a mistake by interfering with the ward delimitation. Once the delimitation is notified, we will file objection if there is anything wrong, when public objections are called”, the minister said.

It is expected that the delimitation of all the 98 wards in the eight Assembly constituencies in Bengaluru will be reworked as it is felt that the BJP had got it done to benefit that party.