307 suggestions & objections incorporated: In BMC’s final delimitation list for civic polls, changes in only 6 electoral wards

The municipal elections in Mumbai are expected to be held early January next year — over three years after the term of corporators ended in March 2022.

The civic body had in June outlined a provisional list of electoral wards, following which it invited suggestions and objections from citizens to the demarcation process. The demarcation of ward boundaries is a process under which the civic administration assesses and evaluates the boundaries of every municipal ward ahead of civic election to identify the changes in each municipal ward considering the ongoing demography as well as infrastructure changes which includes making of new roads and bridges to change in population index.

This year, the BMC received only 492 applications of suggestions and objections on the boundary of the municipal wards with officials attributing the abysmal responses to the lack of major changes in the list.

The BMC has finalised 227 electoral wards this year which is the same as in 2017, when the previous civic polls were held.

In its final list published on Monday, the BMC has incorporated nearly 307 suggestions and objections submitted by citizens.

The BMC said the new notification will come into effect for the purpose of the next general election held immediately after the release of the notification.

The list outlines the boundaries of 227 wards along with the total population including the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) populations.

According to the final ward list, which refers to the Census 2011, the total population of the 227 electoral wards is 1,24,42,373 of which 8.03 lakh are the SC population and 1.29 lakh are STs.

Meanwhile, officials maintained that changes were made in six wards of which maximum are in the western suburbs.
The notification released by the BMC stated, “In exercise of the powers under section 19 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, the State Government or its authorised officer with the Approval of the State Election Commission, Maharashtra or its authorised officer hereby fix the number and extent of the wards into which the said Municipal Corporation area shall be divided as shown in the schedule to this Notification.”

The previous BMC elections were conducted in 2017, with the term of the corporators lapsing in 2022.

Even though Mumbai recorded its highest polling percentage in 20 years — with 55 per cent of registered voters coming out to exercise their franchise — in 2017, the civic elections in Mumbai was marked by chaos as confusion prevailed across polling booths.

Among the main reasons for the confusion was that the municipal voters’ list in 2017 had 11 lakh fewer registered names compared to 2012.

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