The tenure of the
Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was scheduled to end on 22 April 2015. A new election was necessary to elect new
council members and
mayors by that time. The Government of
Karnataka intended to trifurcate the BBMP and had not notified the elections until the end of March 2015. On 30 March, the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) council members B. Somashekar (Shakambari Nagar Ward) and
C. K. Ramamurthy (Pattabhirama Nagar Ward) filed a written petition to conduct elections before the end of the tenure. The Cabinet approved an amendment bill to constitute three new corporations to replace the BBMP. The Karnataka Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2014, was planned to be tabled at the one-day special session of the state legislature on 20 April 2015. The government decided to call the special session to promulgate an ordinance, but it was stalled by Governor
Vajubhai Vala, who stated that he was not satisfied with it. Amidst stiff opposition from both the BJP and
Janata Dal (Secular), the Karnataka Legislative Assembly passed a bill to trifurcate the BBMP with a voice vote on 20 April. Following this, many pro-Kannada organizations and the Youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party protested the trifurcation. After failing to get the Governor's assent for an ordinance on the trifurcation, a one-day session of the Karnataka legislature was convened to pass the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill 2015, which was passed though with vehement opposition. The division bench of the Karnataka High Court also refused to stay a single bench order to conduct the elections before 30 May. On 24 April, the Karnataka High Court put off elections to the BBMP civic body. Setting aside a single bench order, which directed the state election commission (SEC) to conduct the civic poll by 30 May, a division bench headed by Chief Justice D.H. Waghela and Justice Ram Mohan Reddy told the state government to hold the elections by six months, as per the 74th constitutional amendment. The state government filed a review petition on 7 April, seeking a stay on the March 30 order of Justice B.V. Nagarathna to the SEC for holding the civic poll by 30 May, as its five-year term was ending on 22 April. State Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar assured the bench that the state government would abide by its order and help the SEC to hold the election in 198 wards across the city within six months. The State government claimed that trifurcation of the BBMP was necessary to deliver better services to the citizens, while the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) opposed the move, claiming it was a ploy to postpone polls.
G. Kumar Naik took charge as the 61st Commissioner of the BBMP on 20 April, two days after the state government issued an order on superseding the BBMP. The Karnataka Congress government's bill to divide Bengaluru city into three or smaller administrative units was passed by the state legislative assembly on 21 July, after the legislative council, where the BJP opposition had a majority, rejected the bill 20 July. The passage of the new law was expected to give the Congress government more time to conduct elections to the city council, which had been ordered by the high court and the
Supreme Court after the Congress government dissolved the city council in April and took administrative control of the city. The Supreme Court's order brought certainty to the timeline for the BBMP elections after a few months of legal gridlock. The court extended the deadline for the completion of BBMP polls to 28 August. Setting the process for the August 22 election of the BBMP into motion, the commissioner of the BBMP, G. Kumar Naik, issued the notification on 3 August. A calendar of events was released by Naik as an affirmation of the notification, announcing the election dates issued by State Election Commissioner P. N. Srinivasachary on 16 July.
Organization A new
mayor was elected for a term of one year, and
corporators were in office for 5 years. == Schedule ==