Sena and Congress want 75 wards redrawn, on the ground that flawed boundaries cost them seats last time
The BMC polls are scheduled for the early part of 2022
While the Congress and Shiv Sena have demanded ‘rectification’ of electoral wards for the civic election, and the BMC administration has written to the State Election Commission (SEC) seeking directions for some electoral wards, the BJP has opposed the move and threatened to go to court. SEC said the process will be carried out as per the rules.
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There are 227 electoralwards in the Mumbai corporation. The boundaries of wards change once in 10 years on the basis of the census and population division. The redrawing of wards took place before the last corporation election held in 2017 on the basis of the census in 2011 with an average population of 50,000 to 55,000 per ward. After the recalibration, the number of wards decreased in the island city and increased in western and eastern suburbs. But the Shiv Sena and Congress alleged that the redrawing affected them in poll results and demanded rectification of wards. While the Sena has a list of 30 wards, Congress wants the rectification of at least 45 wards. Last week, the BMC wrote to the SEC seeking directions on the rectification of some electoral wards.
‘Will go to court’
In a letter to the state election commissioner, group leader of BJP, Prabhakar Shinde, mentioned that the 2021 census has not yet been completed. Even then, some are insisting on redrawing the wards only for political motives.” He added that the BJP’s corporators are strongly opposed to the redrawing without any rational reason, and they will have no choice but to go to court if there is an attempt to restructure only for political motives.
An SEC official said that every process regarding the election will be as per the rules. He said they had received letters for wards rectification from individuals and not from any political party. But if the BMC sends them a query, it will be considered.
‘Time for rectification’
State Election Commissioner UPS Madan told mid-day, “The redrawing of wards took place five years ago on the basis of the census and there hasn’t been any census since then. So now the boundaries cannot be changed on the basis of population. But if someone has serious objections and there is an issue of natural boundaries, rectification can be considered after the suggestion/objections from the public.”
Madan added that there is still enough time for the process of rectification. Ravi Raja, Congress corporator and leader of the opposition in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, said, “There are serious issues related to the redrawing of wards which took place before the last election. There are at least 45 wards, which should be corrected. If the SEC asks us, we will tell them the issues regarding the redrawing and the impact.” BMC officials declined to comment for this report.
227
No. of corporator electoral wards in the city
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