Bengaluru Civic Polls Face Delay: GBA Seeks Supreme Court Extension to December Amid Voter Enumeration Drive

The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) has approached the Supreme Court seeking an extension of the deadline for conducting civic polls in Bengaluru from August 31 to December 31. The application cites severe logistical challenges due to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Karnataka.

The GBA's plea comes after the court's stringent observations on May 20, where it accused the local body of using delaying tactics to postpone the elections. The court had previously set June 30 as the deadline, then extended it to August 31, calling it the last chance and barring further extensions.

Filed on July 9, the application states that the entire administrative machinery of five city corporations in Bengaluru is fully engaged in the SIR exercise. The revision involves 8,872 booth-level officers, 938 supervisors, 28 election registration officers, and 75 assistant election registration officers, among other personnel drawn from municipal corporations and the GBA.

The Chief Commissioner, who also serves as the District Election Officer, explained that SIR requires house-to-house enumeration by each booth-level officer, including multiple visits for vacant households. Bengaluru alone accounts for over 1.03 crore voters, almost one-sixth of the state's total 5.54 crore voters, spread across approximately 40 lakh residences.

As of now, the administrative machinery has reached 51.8% of the target population, distributing enumeration forms to about 53.85 lakh people. The draft electoral roll is scheduled for publication on August 5. After that, each electoral registration officer will handle nearly one lakh claims for inclusion or exclusion by September 25. The final electoral roll is expected on October 7.

The application notes that frequent intra-city migration and shifting residences pose unique administrative challenges. The overlapping of the SIR and the election process for the five city corporations—Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Dasarahalli, Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli, and Yelahanka—makes a robust election by August 31 extremely difficult.

“SIR is an extremely manpower-intensive exercise entailing house-to-house visits by booth-level officers and requires day-to-day involvement of the complete supervisory structure... The GBA faces severe logistical challenges in executing a robust election by August 31,” the application stated.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear the plea and decide whether to grant the extension, balancing the need for timely elections with the practical difficulties of the voter revision drive.