The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) has approached the Supreme Court seeking a four-month extension to conduct elections to 369 wards across Bengaluru's five city corporations. It cited "severe logistical challenges" arising from the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Karnataka.
In an application filed on July 9, the GBA requested that the deadline for holding the civic polls be extended from August 31 to December 31, arguing that the entire administrative machinery required for the elections is currently engaged in the statewide voter roll revision.
The plea comes despite the Supreme Court's sharp observations during a May 20 hearing, when it accused the GBA of adopting "delaying tactics" to postpone the long-pending civic elections. The court had then extended the election deadline from June 30 to August 31, calling it the GBA's "last chance" and expressly stating that no further extensions would be granted.
According to the application, the SIR has deployed 8,872 Booth Level Officers (BLOs), 938 BLO supervisors, 28 Electoral Registration Officers, 75 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers, besides nodal officers, observers, trainers and resource personnel. Many of these officials have been drawn from the GBA, the five city corporations, and other government departments.
The GBA said the Chief Commissioner, who also serves as the District Election Officer, is overseeing the SIR exercise, which requires house-to-house enumeration by BLOs, including at least three follow-up visits to households found locked during the initial visit.
The authority submitted that Bengaluru accounts for over 1.03 crore voters, nearly one-sixth of Karnataka's 5.54 crore electorate, spread across around 40 lakh households. It argued that conducting both the SIR and civic elections simultaneously would place an unsustainable burden on the election machinery.
As of the filing of the application, enumeration forms had been distributed to approximately 53.85 lakh voters, representing 51.8% of the target population. The GBA said the collection of forms and preparation of the draft electoral roll is underway and is scheduled to be completed by August 5.
Following the publication of the draft roll, Electoral Registration Officers in Bengaluru are expected to decide nearly one lakh claims and objections relating to the inclusion or deletion of names in the electoral rolls by September 25. The authority said this process is particularly challenging in Bengaluru due to high levels of intra-city migration and frequent changes of residence. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on October 7.
"SIR is an extremely manpower-intensive exercise entailing house-to-house visits by the Booth Level Officers and also requires day-to-day involvement of the complete supervisory structure involving officers at all levels up to the District Election Officer," the application stated.
"The GBA faces severe logistical challenges in conducting a robust election by August 31 owing to the overlap between the SIR and the elections to the five city corporations of Bengaluru," it added.
