BJP demands restoration of four-member civic ward, SEC lobs ball in

The 2017 elections to the Pune Municipal Corporation and Pimpri-Chinchwad and a few other municipal corporations were held on the four-member ward system. However, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, changed it to a three-member ward system.

SEC officials said the Supreme Court has clearly said that the power to decide the number of corporators who should be elected from one particular ward rests with the state government. “The Supreme Court has in response to a writ petition said that the power to decide on holding the election in a three-member, four-member or one-member system rests entirely with the state government. If the state government issues directives to that effect, we will hold the elections accordingly,” Kurundkar said.

Kurundkar said until recently, the state government had been monitoring the civic elections in Maharashtra. “(Now) The SC is monitoring the civic elections. We have to submit a compliance report to the state government by July 12,” he said.

The commission officials said they would not like to hazard a guess on whether the new government led by Eknath Shinde will change the current three-member ward system decided by the MVA. “We will wait for government directives in this connection. The new state government has taken charge just recently. We think it might call us for a discussion in the coming days,” an official said.

Mahesh Landge, MLA and president of Pimpri-Chinchwad unit of the BJP, said his party was against the three-member ward system. “There was a lot of interference by the previous government in civic elections. As a result, we had objected to the three-member ward system, ward demarcation and voters’ list. In a day or two, we will write to the state government to have a close look at everything related to civic elections and revert to the four-member ward system,” Landge said, adding that the entire BJP unit in Pimpri-Chinchwad is opposed to the MVA’s decision to introduce three-member ward system. “Even in the MVA, there were differences on this as the Congress had opposed the decision to go with the three-member ward system,” he said.

Sunil Mane, secretary of the BJP Pune city unit, said, “As of now, we don’t know what decision our government will take. But since there was opposition to the MVA government’s decision and several objections were raised, it is possible that the new government will revert to the old decision or take some other decision such as one member, one ward.”

Another BJP leader Sarang Kamtekar, however, said the possibility of any change to the three-member ward system was slim. “The Supreme Court had said whatever was done or decided till March 10 was final and the Election Commission should do whatever was required after that. Before March 10, the decision regarding ward formation and ward demarcation was finalised,” he said.

Kamtekar added, “There will be more clarity on the civic elections on July 12 when the EC submits its compliance report. If the state government wants to take any new decision, it will have to wait until then.”

NCP spokesperson Ankush Kakade said the possibility of the new government changing the ward system to a four-member one cannot be ruled out. “The reason is that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who was the cabinet minister in the previous government, had opposed the three-member ward system. He had raised objections to it in a cabinet meeting. Therefore, I think the new government might take a new decision on the civic elections,” he said.

Meanwhile, there is still no clarity when the civic elections will be held. The term of both PMC and PCMC ended in the second week of March. Currently, both the civic bodies are being ruled by administrators. “I think only after a decision on the OBC reservation is made will there be more clarity when the civic elections will be held. Most probably, they will be held in October,” Kamtekar said.

7,000 objections to draft voters’ list

The PCMC election department said they have received 7,000 objections to the draft voters’ list published by them. “We will do a field survey and take corrective actions in this regard,” said PCMC election chief Balasaheb Khandekar. The last date for submission of objections was July 3 and the election department will now publish the final voter list by July 9, he added.