Party members allege that the civic body wrongly made changes to the electoral ward boundaries in the draft submitted to the election commission, seek footage to substantiate this
The civic elections are in February 2022. Pic/Suresh Karkera
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has asked for CCTV footage of the municipal commissioner’s office through an RTI query to the Security Department of the BMC, to prove their allegations of changes to electoral ward boundaries. The party members aim to build pressure on the Shiv Sena ruled BMC with their claim that the civic body wrongly made changes to the electoral ward boundaries in the draft submitted to the election commission last week.
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The ward administration plan has been submitted to the State Election Commission for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections to be held in February 2022. The BJP has accused the Shiv Sena of changing the draft plans initially drawn by the Election Department of the BMC and submitting them. They have alleged that the plan breaks up BJP wards in a way that will help the Sena. BJP leaders have accused that this was done in connivance with the commissioner and an external private agency.
According to the BJP, the draft was submitted by the Election Department of BMC on October 21 and there was no action taken in the matter. “On October 26 the draft was again submitted to the state election commission with changes. The CCTV footage will help us reveal all the details of who visited the commissioner office recently and we may have evidence in this case,” said BJP’s Bhalchandra Shirsat.
Protest with flowers
There are about 48 BJP corporators in the Western Suburbs alone, and all the changes proposed are in these areas where the natural boundaries are being completely violated and crossed arbitrarily, alleged the corporators. BJP members on Monday visited the municipal commissioner’s office and gave him flowers for doing so, protesting in Mahatma Gandhi’s style. BMC officials said they submitted the draft after checking all ground realities. Senior civic officials refuted all claims and said they were ‘rubbish’ and the changes submitted are as per the ground work only by civic officials.
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