Cong corporators raise objections

Ahead of the 2012 civic elections,top leaders of ruling party Shiv Sena and opposition Congress and NCP in the BMC suffered a jolt as their wards have now become reserved.

Dharmesh Vyas,Congress corporator from H-east ward,said: “The ward boundaries for any election are supposed to be based on the latest Census. According to provisional data from the Census 2010,a majority of the population has moved to the suburbs and we should make the wards accordingly. The reservation has been done haphazardly,not taking into account the population of the ward.”

“The reservation for both caste and women should be done at the prabhag level,” said Vyas,whose ward is now under the reserved category for women.

According to the Election Department,the population in the suburbs in the 2001 Census was 86,40,419 and 33,33,031 in the island city. The population in the suburbs has gone up to 93,32,481 in 2011 and decreased in the island city to 31,45,966,based on the provisional figures of the Census Department.

“Delimitation is important. All the wards should have equal population based on the new census data. So,if a ward has larger population than the next one,some people should be shifted to the nearby electoral ward,” said Kamlesh Yadav,Congress corporator from Charkop. His ward is now reserved under OBC women category and he plans to contest from another ward.

Other Congress corporators who have sent their objections are Nitin Salagre,Gautam Sabale and from the North West Youth Congress Committee.

An official of BMC’s Election Department said,“If the wards are based on the recent population,a part of the electorate will shift to another ward. This will give a chance to many corporators to fight the elections from neighbouring wards and be assured of their old voter base.”