No trifurcation, hold BBMP polls: Supreme Court

New Delhi\Bengaluru: The decks have been cleared for polls to the prestigious Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) after the Supreme Court was informed that the state machinery could conduct the civic elections within three months. This comes as a setback for the Congress government in Karnataka which was hoping the apex court would uphold an earlier Karnataka high court order giving it six months to hold polls.

To add to the government’s woes, the Karnataka high court on Tuesday put on hold its ongoing demolition of encroachments on lake beds in the city which had attracted severe criticism from the public. There has been a huge public outcry against the delay in holding polls after the BBMP council was superceded with the opposition BJP and JD(S) claiming the CM was wary of facing polls fearing a disastrous loss.

Claims were made that the government was buying time to trifurcate BBMP and weaken the opposition base in the city before facing the electorate. Some felt the Congress feared a backlash after the controversial D.K. Ravi death episode and law and order issues in the city. The trifurcation issue has been referred to a select panel of the legislature which is expected to give its report in three months.  

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu was informed by senior advocate for the government Kapil Sibal  that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had conveyed that elections can be held in three months. The bench thereupon set aside a division bench decision of the High Court made on April 24 which gave the government six months to hold polls. Earlier, a single judge bench of the high court had said elections should be conducted beforeMay 30.

Several NGOs and corporators had contended that the delay in conducting elections violated the Constitutional limit of five-years fixed for holding civic polls. Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar had filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court to stay the high court order granting the government six months to conduct elections.

The apex court granted the government three months to hold elections on the ground that the process of reservations and elections cannot be conducted earlier. The government has assured the court that the BBMP will not be trifurcated before the elections.