The Karnataka State Election Commission has directed the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) to prepare voter lists for elections to five city corporations using the final Assembly electoral rolls published on October 27, 2026, as the civic polls must be completed by December under a Supreme Court order.
The commission said the lack of time made it necessary to prepare preliminary voter lists immediately. Voters are to be identified according to the ward boundaries notified during the delimitation process, using the Assembly electoral roll data from October.
The GBA has been instructed to identify voters falling within each ward’s boundary and organise the information according to polling-station areas. The commission has also directed that no polling-station area should contain more than 1,200 voters in the preparatory data. The information is to be entered and prepared by November 12.
The directions have been issued to the GBA chief commissioner, who has been asked to instruct the electoral registration officers concerned to complete the work within the specified timeline. The process will determine the voter allocation for the five municipal corporations that fall within the GBA area.
According to the secretary’s circular, the commission has written to the Election Commission of India seeking the data from the final electoral rolls published on October 27. Once the data is received, a separate circular will set out the schedule for preparing and printing the municipal voter lists.
The commission has linked the accelerated preparation to the Supreme Court’s direction that general elections to the five municipal corporations be completed by December. The circular asks the authorities to proceed with preparations in accordance with that deadline.
The voter-list exercise is a key administrative step before the civic elections can be conducted. It involves transferring voters from the Assembly roll into the newly delimited municipal wards and organising them by polling-station jurisdiction. The commission’s instructions indicate that the immediate priority is to align the existing electoral data with the revised ward boundaries before the lists are finalised and printed.
The five municipal corporations are part of the restructured urban administration under the GBA. The commission’s schedule places the responsibility for the initial data preparation with the GBA and its electoral registration officers, while the Election Commission of India is expected to provide the underlying Assembly-roll data.
The next formal step will be the commission’s separate schedule for voter-list preparation and printing after the data is received. The municipal election process is required to be completed by December, in line with the Supreme Court direction cited in the circular.
