Soon, state will hear your views on ward boundaries

MUMBAI: Soon, you will get a say in your city’s electoral boundaries. According to the timeline issued by the State election commission on August 20, citizens will get to submit their suggestions and objections on the city’s new electoral boundaries between October 5 and 20.

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With an influx of the city’s population to the suburbs, the electoral boundaries will be redrawn to reduce the number of wards from the island city, officials said.

The move comes ahead of the municipal elections scheduled to be held on February 2017. As per the timeline, the ward delimitation has to be published for public scrutiny by October 5. The process, which will also include creating a recommendation report on the objections, is expected to be completed by November 22.

The delimitation exercise will have an impact on the elections as it will influence which candidate gets the ticket to contest. Significantly, it may change political equations in some wards if committed voters of a particular candidate or party get shifted to the neighbouring wards as electoral maps are redrawn.

According to the 2011 census, the city’s population has dipped by 3%, while the suburban population is up by 8%.

So, an electoral ward each from the A,B,C,D and E wards and two from the G/South ward of the island city will be shifted to the suburbs, four in the western suburbs and three in the eastern suburbs, a senior civic official confirmed.

The agenda is to limit the population to 50,000 to 55,000 people per electoral ward. There are 227 electoral wards in the city, which will remain constant.

The official said, “The committee set-up by the election commission, which includes the municipal commissioner, will set the boundaries as per the directives received by the commission and BMC data. This will also be submitted to the state election commission.”

The civic body will also organize a lottery to declare the reservation for various wards on October 3, the timeline states. The lottery system for reserved or open wards will also sway election results.

In effect, political parties will get barely three months to run a campaign. The entire election procedure, including declaration of results, is expected to be completed by March 8, 2017.