PMC may declare electoral panel boundaries without reservation of seats

The 173 corporators would be elected on the basis of a three-member electoral panel system with three members from 57 electoral panels and two corporators from a two-member electoral panel. The decision for three-member electoral panel election for municipal corporation was declared recently after replacing the earlier system of four-member electoral panel. As per the constitution of the civic body, 50 per cent of seats have been reserved for women besides various other categories.

The state election commission had made the PMC conduct the delimitation process ahead of civic polls but the finalisation of draft delimitation got delayed due to the ongoing pandemic. The PMC administration has recently submitted draft delimitation to the poll panel, which would study the same and ask to make it public to seek suggestions and objections from citizens. Thereafter, a public hearing would be held and the final draft would be published before the civic polls.

“The issue of reservation for OBCs is still in the court. Thus, the state election commission has asked the PMC to declare the geographical boundaries of electoral panel without the reservation,” said a PMC officer.

In 2017, the civic elections were held in four-member wards. The PMC had a total of 162 members elected through 41 wards which included 39 wards with four members and two wards with three members. Later, two more members were elected with inclusion of 11 new villages in civic jurisdiction, taking the total strength to 164 members in the current five-year term.

Maharashtra government recently merged 23 more villages in PMC limits, increasing its geographical area and population. However, the state election commission, while directing the civic administration to undertake the delimitation process, increased the number of seats to 166 for the next elections based on the 2011 census figures since the 2021 census has got delayed due to the pandemic.

As per the 2011 census, the population of PMC is fixed at 35,56,824, which includes 4,80,017 Schedule Caste category citizens and 41,561 Schedule Tribe population. Thus, the number of panels has been fixed at 58, which would include 57 three-member wards and one two-member panel.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won full majority in 2012 by winning 97 of the total of 162 seats, coming to power at the PMC for the first time after dislodging the NCP. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had bagged 39 seats, the Shiv Sena 10 seats, the Congress nine seats, the MNS two seats and the AIMIM one seat. Four seats were won by Independent candidates.