As it starts preparations for the much-delayed elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which are likely to be held in January next year, the State Election Commission (SEC) faces several challenges, including a changed political landscape, new delimitation boundaries and manpower crunch. A lot has changed in Maharashtra’s politics since the last BMC elections were held. For instance, both the Shiv Sena and the NCP witnessed a vertical split in their ranks. Therefore, the upcoming civic polls in Mumbai could turn out to be both a battle for prestige and survival for several key political units in the state.
SEC officials stated that out of the 227 wards in the BMC, 113 or 114 could be reserved for woman candidates. “As per government rules, out of the 227 wards, 15 will be reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, and two wards will be reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates. Half of the wards, say 113 or 114, will be reserved for woman candidates and the rest will be kept unreserved,” a senior official told The Indian Express.
On October 6, the Maharashtra SEC and the BMC completed a key milestone in finalising the boundaries of all 227 municipal wards. Earlier this week, the SEC also announced that the lottery for the reservation of seats is set to take place on November 11. SEC officials said that while the number of wards that will be reserved is pre-decided, the lottery will decide which wards will be reserved during the elections.
An SEC official said, “The ward-wise list of voters will be published on November 6, and citizens can file for suggestions and objections till December 2.”
“Simultaneously, after the lottery for the reservation of wards is carried out on November 11, we will invite suggestions and objections. We will publish the final draft of reserved wards on November 28,” the official added.
New delimitation boundaries
SEC officials said that even though Mumbai’s population has increased since 2017, when the last civic election was held, the voter list is being mostly prepared as per the 2011 census.
“Over the past eight years, there have been multiple additions to the city’s overall infrastructure, including the coastal road, Atal Setu, and the Metro corridors. These are non-residential zones; however, the overall alignment of these places has been kept in mind while adjusting ward boundaries,” a poll official said.
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Maharashtra SEC officials said a delimitation exercise is carried out for Assembly constituencies every 30 years, but delimitation is necessary for civic elections after every five years.
“At the municipal ward level, the changes in demography happen at a much faster pace and are very prominent, for which there is a need for delimitation ahead of every election,” an official said.
After coming to power in 2019, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government had proposed increasing the number of municipal wards in Mumbai to 236 from 227. However, after forming the state government a couple of years later, the Eknath Shinde-led Cabinet reversed the decision.
Delimitation is the process of fixing and reorganising the boundaries of a constituency. The process takes into account demographic changes and infrastructure development, among others. The next delimitation for Maharashtra Assembly constituencies is set to take place in 2029.
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Manpower crunch
Officials said while the deadline for elections is approaching, the lack of manpower continues to be a concern for them. At present, the assessment and collection department (AC) of BMC has been assigned the task of preparing for the elections.
“The assessment department is also responsible for collecting property taxes and attaching properties, which are an important source of revenue for the BMC. Therefore, there has been an issue in assigning staffers for election-related duties,” said a senior civic official.
BMC officials further said that in the past few years, several infrastructure works, like road concretising and the coastal road, have been taken up. Owing to this, many officials who are mainly engineers have been deployed on the ground to execute and monitor these projects. The officials said if the civic administration now decides to deploy these officials to election duty, then basic civic works will take a hit.
“Every year, BMC staffers get involved in election duty, be it civic, state or general. But, this year, the notification (Supreme Court order that civic elections be held in Maharashtra) came out all of a sudden, leaving us with very little time for delimitation and other election-related work… this is a concern for us,” the civic official said.
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