The Karnataka government has been forced to hold the much delayed Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections following the Karnataka High Court’s order on Monday, which dismissed the State government’s application to postpone the civic body elections.

The elections should have been held in May, but the State government dragged its feet as it had lost two consecutive council elections and wasn’t sure of winning the next one. The stakes for all the parties are high as the civic body jurisdiction consists of 28 Assembly seats, constituting 15 per cent of the total number of Assembly seats.

The results of the polls would be seen as the reflection of a party’s performance in the Assembly constituencies. Therefore, the State government sought to delay it by trying to trifurcate the civic body as well as bringing a new reservation schedule for the wards based on the 2011 census.

However, a Bill to trifurcate the civic body failed in the Assembly because of growing opposition and a Supreme Court order. Then the government imposed an administrator to look after the affairs of the civic body as its tenure got over in April.

The High Court not only dismissed the State government application but also imposed a fine of ₹10,000 to be paid to each of the respondents as judicial discipline (wasting the court’s time).

Blow to Congress

The verdict has dampened the spirits of the Congress. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been trying to win lost ground by announcing a series of mega projects for the city as well as launching several civic projects.

Justice BV Nagarathna said: “Respondent-authorities are directed to comply with the spirit of the order dated March 30, 2015 and the order of the Supreme Court dated May 5, 2015 by issuing the necessary notifications and taking steps for holding the election in terms of the time stipulated by the Supreme Court.”

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