More than five months on, Mangaluru City Corporation awaits ward-wise reservations list to hold polls

The Hindu

2 days ago

More than five months since the five-year term of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) council ended, the civic body is waiting for the government to publish the draft list of ward-wise reservations to hold election.
The term of the elected council, which was led by the BJP, expired on February 27, 2025.
Sources within the corporation stated that the government has not taken any action to publish the draft reservations, thus prolonging the holding of the election. The government will have to invite objections to the draft before publishing the final notification announcing the reservations. The Election Commission will have to announce the election date later.
Along with Mangaluru, city corporation councils of Mysuru, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Davangere, and Bengaluru too are waiting for elections to their councils for long.
A study titled 'A Critical Review of Decentralised Participatory Governance in Cities of Karnataka', by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, noted in 2024 that there are substantial delays in holding elections to municipal corporations.
Elections to municipal corporations are delayed by an average of 22 months, and the formation of municipal councils and the election of mayors or presidents of municipalities are delayed by an additional two-and-a-half years, it said.
The report called for the timely conduct of elections to city councils every five years and for mayoral elections to be held within 15 days of the municipal election results being declared. It also recommended empowering the State Election Commission to conduct the delimitation of wards and reservation fixation to avoid delays.
Previous MCC council elections
In the last election held for the MCC council on November 12, 2019, the BJP snatched the council from the Congress by winning 44 of 60 wards. The Congress managed to bag 14 seats while the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) bagged two seats.
In the 2013 election, the Congress managed to get the council from the BJP by winning 35 seats. The BJP won 20 seats and the Janata Dal (Secular) got two seats. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) shared a seat each. An independent was also elected. The BJP lost power in the council which it had captured for the first time in the 2007 elections.
Though the elections were held in 2013, the council came into being in March 2014 after one year from the date of the elections due to reservation issues pertaining to the offices of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor.
In 2007, the BJP sat in the treasury benches of the corporation for the first time by ending the two-decade control of the Congress in the civic body. The BJP won 34 seats. The Congress had been able to win 20 seats then. The Janata Dal (Secular) and Communist Party of India (Marxists) could get one seat each, and four seats had been bagged by independents. Later, Santhosh, a Congress rebel who won from Panambur Bengre ward (no. 11) as an independent, joined the BJP taking its tally to 35.