‘New wards will benefit Sena’: Congress ‘upset’ with ally partner over revised boundaries

“After final maps were published on Friday, all corporators studied their ward boundaries. In all, we have found that more than 40 electoral ward boundaries have been changed. Also, about 17 wards of Congress’s sitting corporators have gone through changes, giving an edge to the Sena. The Shiv Sena is repeating what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did during 2017 BMC polls,” a former Congress corporator said on condition of anonymity. These wards are in the island city and western suburbs.

He said, “We will be having a meeting with senior party functionaries on this issue after which further course of action will be decided.”

According to officials from BMC’s Election Department, boundaries of 90 electoral wards have been changed. The number of electoral wards has increased from 227 to 236. Three wards each in island city, western and eastern suburbs have been increased. Areas like Worli, Parel, Byculla, Kurla, Chembur, Malad, Borivali, Kandivali, Dahisar and Andheri have seen change in ward boundaries.

With 92 corporators, Shiv Sena was the single largest party in BMC till March 7 when the five-year term of the corporation ended. The Congress had 29 corporators. A few former Congress corporators had recently expressed disappointment at not being invited during the inauguration of projects or ground-breaking ceremony in their wards.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party legislator Rais Shaikh had also alleged that new ward boundaries have changed to support the ruling party. However, Shiv Sena leaders in BMC have denied any involvement in the ward boundary formation.