The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP, Bangalore Metropolitan Council) is the municipal corporation in charge of the civic and infrastructural assets of the city. The district of Bangalore is home to 7 other city municipal councils such as those in Yelahanka, Bommanahalli, Dasarahalli, Krishnarajapuram, Pattangere, Bytarayanpura and Mahadevapura.

The Government of Karnataka proposes to merge these 7 councils into BMP to form Greater Bangalore. The BMP council comprises 100 elected representatives, called "corporators", one from each of the 100 wards (localities) of the city. Elections to the council are held once every five years, with results being decided by popular vote.

A mayor and commissioner of the council are also elected through a quota system from a Scheduled Castes and Tribes candidate or to an Other Backward Class female candidate. Bangalore's rapid growth has created several problems relating to traffic congestion and infrastructural obsolescence that the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has found challenging to address. A 2003 Battelle Environmental Evaluation System (BEES) evaluation of Bangalore's physical, biological and socioeconomic parameters indicated that Bangalore's water quality, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem were close to ideal, while the city's socioeconomic parameters (traffic, quality of life) scored poorly.

The BMP has been criticised by the Karnataka High Court, citizens and corporations for failing to effectively address the crumbling road and traffic infrastructure of Bangalore. The unplanned nature of growth in the city resulted in massive traffic gridlocks that the municipality attempted to ease by constructing a flyover system and by imposing one-way traffic systems. Some of the flyovers and one-ways mitigated the traffic situation moderately but were unable to adequately address the disproportionate growth of city traffic. In 2005 both the Central Government and State Government allocated considerable portions of their annual budgets to address Bangalore's infrastructure.

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike works with the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) to design and implement civic projects. Bangalore generates about 3,000 tonnes of solid waste per day, of which about 1,139 tonnes are collected and sent to composting units such as the Karnataka Composting Development Corporation. The remaining solid waste collected by the municipality is dumped in open spaces or on roadsides outside the city.

The Bangalore City Police (BCP) is headed by a Police Commissioner, who is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. The BCP has six geographic zones, includes Traffic Police, City Armed Reserve, Central Crime Branch and City Crime Record Bureau and runs 86 police stations, including two all-women police stations.

As capital of the state of Karnataka, Bangalore houses important state government facilities such as the Karnataka High Court, the Vidhana Soudha (the home of the Karnataka state legislature) and Raj Bhavan. Bangalore contributes two members to India's lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, and 24 members to the Karnataka State Assembly.

Electricity in Bangalore is regulated through the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL). Like many cities in India, Bangalore experiences scheduled power cuts, especially over the summer, to allow electricity providers to meet the consumption demands of households as well as corporations.