The Karnataka government has released the final ward-wise reservation list for all 369 wards under Bengaluru’s five municipal corporations. The notification was issued late on Saturday night, March 7.
According to the notification, 176 of the 369 wards have been reserved for women, which falls short of the 50% reservation mark. In terms of category-wise allocation, 198 wards fall under the general category, 43 are reserved for Scheduled Castes, seven for Scheduled Tribes, 97 for Backward Class A, and 24 for Backward Class B.
The reservation exercise, which took nearly six months, was carried out under the framework of the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024. The Act replaced the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike with five separate corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority.
The draft reservation list was published on January 8, with the government inviting objections until January 23. The Urban Development Department said the objections were placed before a review committee chaired by the Additional Chief Secretary. The committee examined the suggestions in line with the provisions of the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024 and concluded that some of the objections were valid. Changes were subsequently incorporated before the list was recommended to the government for approval.
As a result, the reservation status of 84 wards was altered compared to the draft notification. A comparison between the draft and final lists shows that the highest number of changes occurred in the Bengaluru West Corporation, with 33 wards. This was followed by Bengaluru North with 18 changes, Bengaluru South with 14, Bengaluru East with 12, and Bengaluru Central with seven.
An analysis of the revised reservations indicates that Assembly segments represented by opposition legislators, including Malleswaram, Mahadevapura, and Bommanahalli, have seen more changes compared to those represented by ruling party legislators. No changes were recorded in Shanthinagar, BTM Layout, and Shivajinagar.
With the publication of the ward-wise reservation list, the government has completed the preparatory steps required to hold the civic elections, which have been pending since September 2020. The responsibility for conducting the polls now lies with the Karnataka State Election Commission, which is expected to release the final electoral rolls on April 6.
The state government has informed the Supreme Court of India that the elections will be held before June 30. The polls were initially delayed when the BJP was in power. After the Congress government took office, it implemented the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024 and reorganised the civic structure. In December 2025, the government created 369 wards under the new framework while retaining the existing external boundary of the civic body.