Over 1,400 Bandra residents petition for Asif Zakaria’s nomination to BMC

The online petition, launched last week, had garnered 1,417 signatures by Tuesday evening, with residents expressing hope that the number of signatories will increase in the coming days.

“Asif Zakaria has been the only person who has relentlessly worked on the ground every day of the year, both officially and unofficially for over a decade for the people living at Bandra. He has a good equation with the BMC and gets issues addressed expeditiously and he attends all the complaints that are being raised by citizens,” said Sabita Burges, a Bandra resident.

City activist Zoru Bhathena echoed similar views, saying, “There needs to be a proper representation of learned people in the civic body. The post of a nominated corporator holds equal weightage to that of an elected representative and having a corporator like Mr Zakaria in the house will only help the administration in framing key policy decisions for the people.”

The election of Mumbai’s 78th mayor is scheduled on February 11, when all 227 municipal councillors will vote to elect the mayoral candidate fielded by their respective political parties. Following this, the council of corporators will be officially inducted into the BMC.

This term, the BMC will have 10 nominated corporator seats, to be allocated among political parties based on their performance in the municipal polls.

The BJP, having emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, is expected to receive four nominated seats. The Shiv Sena (UBT), with 65 seats, is likely to get three. The Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), Congress, and AIMIM are expected to receive one nominated seat each, having won 29, 28, and 8 seats, respectively.