BMC ready with revised boundaries for 236 seats, 8 seats to increase in suburbs, 1 in south Mumbai

While the state government is yet to issue final notification paving the way to increase electoral seats for upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, from the current seat strength of 227 to 236, the civic body has said it is ready with the revised ward boundaries. The nine additional seats are being added as five extra seats in western suburbs, three in eastern suburbs and one seat in south Mumbai

While the state government is yet to issue final notification paving the way to increase electoral seats for upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, from the current seat strength of 227 to 236, the civic body has said it is ready with the revised ward boundaries for the 236 seats. According to BMC officials, the nine additional seats are being added as five extra seats in western suburbs, three in eastern suburbs and one seat in the island city.

According to BMC officials, the nine additional seats are being added as five extra seats in western suburbs, three in eastern suburbs and one seat in south Mumbai. The 2011 census was considered for the redrawing of the ward boundaries for taking the count to 236 seats, officials said.

According to BMC officials, the 2011 census was considered for the redrawing of the ward boundaries for taking the count to 236 seats. The BMC officials have said it will forward the revised ward boundaries for its approval to the state election commission once the final notification is issued by the urban development department. The current composition of the civic body’s electoral ward has been unchanged since 2001. The state government did not increase the number of corporators in 2012 even when the population rose by 3.87% since 2001. Hence, the 2011 census has been used as the base as the 2021 census has been delayed owing to the Covid pandemic.

The state cabinet, earlier this month, had cleared a proposal to increase the strength of the Mumbai civic body from 227 to 236 members. Following the decision, the urban development department will amend the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, to change the composition of the corporation. The state government said that the move was necessary owing to the growth in the city’s population in the past two decades.

A senior BMC official from the election department of the BMC, said, “We are ready with ward boundaries for both 227 and 236 seats, and are in a position to submit to the state election commission for scrutiny. However, we are waiting for final notification from the state government. Once the notification is issued, we will send the revised ward boundaries, in which, we have changed boundaries of the existing 227 electoral wards, and not of the 24 administrative wards.”

The BMC official added, “As per the revised boundaries, we are increasing around five electoral wards in western suburbs, three in eastern suburbs and one in the island city. We have calculated the average voting population in each ward to balance out while increasing the electoral seats.”

According to the procedure, once the BMC submits the list of 236 seats to the state election commission, it will scrutinise the proposal and call for suggestions and objections from the general public.

Post this, the BMC will conduct a lottery for deciding the reservation status of the administrative wards. The tentative dates for elections are expected to be in the last week of February or the first week of March, considering the term of current corporators ends on March 7, 2022. In the current upcoming polls, the BMC is also going to increase polling booths from the current 8,500 booths to around 11,000 polling booths.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of the BMC said, “We are well-prepared to conduct polls as per schedule. We are in the process of completing the administrative work for it.”

Further, in the city, during the 2017 BMC elections, there were around 9.2 million voters, which went up to around 9.6 million in 2019 during the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The number is now expected to have crossed the 10-million mark. Meanwhile, currently, in the civic house of 227 seats, the Shiv Sena has 97 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party has 83, Congress 29, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 8, Samajwadi Party (SP) six seats, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen two seats and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has one.