BMC finalises ward boundaries for 236 seats, elections by March end

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday said that it has finalised the demarcation for 236 electoral wards in the city. A senior BMC official said that they plan to increase three seats across the city in eastern and western suburbs, followed by the island city. The revised ward demarcation will be submitted by Friday. BMC also said the polls are likely to be held by the March end.

“The term of the current elected corporators will get over by March 7. Hence, in this case, we have to take a call whether an administrator will have to be appointed for the time being or not,” informed a senior BMC official.

The state cabinet, in November 2021, 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 amended 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.

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.

Further, owing to COVID-19, 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.

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.

Meanwhile, earlier the Bombay high court (HC) dismissed a plea filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporators opposing the increase of the number of wards. With nine new wards boundaries of wards will change. BJP had alleged that the move is against the norms as the criteria for increasing the wards is population increase in the constituency.

Sign on to read the HT ePaper epaper.hindustantimes.com