401 nominations filed for 227 BMC seats

Various factors have delayed the process of filing nominations including delay in announcing candidates by political parties and disagreements in seat-sharing among Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners

Mumbai: As of Monday evening, the second last day for filing nominations for the 227 seats in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), only 401 aspiring corporators had filed their nomination papers. Among these, 357 nominations were filed on Monday itself.

401 nominations filed for 227 BMC seats

Various factors have delayed the process of filing nominations including delay in announcing candidates by political parties and disagreements in seat-sharing among Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners.

In all, 11,568 nomination forms were distributed between December 23-29. Among these, 1,225 forms were sold on Monday, ostensibly to ensure proper form filling and avoid getting rejected at the scrutiny stage. Aspiring candidates said the documentation for filing nominations for the upcoming BMC poll is cumbersome as no objection certificates need be attached for a host of things, such as no water tax or property tax liabilities and certification about using toilets.

Nomination forms will continue to be available till 4pm on Tuesday. Anticipating a rush among candidates to file nominations at the closing hours, officials have asked all returning officers to give tokens to candidates by 5pm, the closing time, and allow candidates to file nominations thereafter.

“Our returning officers will give tokens to candidates who come in by 5pm on Tuesday,” said state election commissioner Dinesh Waghmare.