After nearly five years of delay, the long-pending Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections are finally expected to take place by November 2025, according to Shivajinagar MLA and Congress leader Rizwan Arshad.
In an exclusive interview with International Business Times on The Talk, Rizwan Arshad confirmed that the elections—originally due in 2020—are set to be conducted under a new governance structure once the delimitation process is completed.
"Once the corporation boundaries are identified, within a month the process of identifying the ward boundaries will start and by November, I am sure that we should have corporation elections based on the new corporations and new boundaries," the Congress MLA said.
His statement comes amid mounting pressure on the state government to restore elected representation in Bengaluru's civic body. The BBMP council's term ended in September 2020, but elections have been repeatedly delayed due to legal and administrative hurdles, including the expansion of wards and subsequent reservation revisions.
The Congress-led Karnataka government has recently proposed the Greater Bengaluru Governance (GBA) Bill—passed in early 2024—which aims to overhaul urban administration and decentralize the BBMP into smaller, more manageable municipal corporations such as North, South, East, and West Bengaluru. The bill seeks to replace the monolithic BBMP structure with multiple smaller corporations—each with its own mayor, commissioner, and council—coordinated by a central Greater Bengaluru Authority.
Rizwan Arshad argued that this restructuring is essential to improve urban governance in a rapidly growing metropolis like Bengaluru. "Bangalore cannot be governed like one single unscientific corporation," he noted. "We have proposed to restructure the city into smaller corporations with autonomy and power. It will decentralize governance, increase transparency, and ensure competitive development among zones."
Read more: What is Greater Bengaluru Bill?
The Congress leader noted that it will also spark "competitive development" between different parts of the city. "If North corporation is doing something, the South will try to keep it up... so there has to be some kind of competitive development," he said.
Importantly, the new governance structure will streamline coordination between various parastatal agencies like BWSSB, BESCOM, and BBMP, reducing redundancies and delays in project execution.
Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot approved the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, 2025, in April, paving the way for restructuring the BBMP into multiple corporations under the newly formed Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA). The legislation, reviewed by a joint legislative committee headed by Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad, mandates the establishment of the GBA within 120 days and empowers it to coordinate planning and service delivery across the city. The Act allows for up to seven corporations—initially three as per the government's plan—and grants them powers to levy various taxes and charges to enhance local governance and accountability.
Rizwan Arshad believes that the new structure, if implemented, could become a model for the rest of India.
"This will bring in a new model worth trying. And I am sure if there are any kind of weaknesses, we can always rectify," he said.
