The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is scheduled to conduct lottery on Tuesday to reserve 227 wards for the upcoming civic elections, which are expected to be held early next year.
According to civic officials, about 27 per cent or 61 of the total seats will be reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates, about 15 will be reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) candidates and two seats will be reserved for candidates from Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities. Of the 227 wards, 50 per cent (113 or 114) will be allocated to female candidates, including reserved seats. About 75 of the 227 seats will be for the open category.
“Currently, all the 29 municipal bodies are functioning without elected representatives and they will all conduct a lottery for all the constituencies and constituencies that will go for elections. After the lottery is over, we will invite suggestions and objections and the final draft of the constituencies will be published on November 28,” an official said.
Lottery is a major deciding factor for political parties in allocating seats to their candidates, because it determines the number of constituencies to be allocated to female candidates or candidates coming from backward communities.
After coming to power in 2019, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government proposed increasing the number of municipal wards in Mumbai to 236 from 227. So, after dissolving the general body of elected representatives in 2022, the BMC conducted a lottery for 236 municipal wards for the civic elections that were supposed to be held that year.
However, the Eknath Shinde government, formed in June 2022, challenged the decision and the Bombay High Court (HC) ordered the next civic elections to be held on only 227 seats.
“The delimitation of wards is being carried out on the basis of the 2011 Census. However, since 2017, Mumbai has witnessed multiple additions to the overall city infrastructure which include the coastal road created, Atal Setu, and metro corridors. These are non-residential areas and, hence, have not added any increase in Mumbai’s overall population. However, the general alignment of these places has been included in the ward boundaries,” the official said.
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On the political front, Maharashtra witnessed a series of political dramas with both the Shiv Sena and NCP witnessing a vertical split.
Therefore, the upcoming civic elections in Mumbai will be a battle for the prestige and existence of the parties belonging to the ruling power and the opposition parties in the state.
While the BJP is looking to make its way to the largest civic body by being the largest party for the first time, the upcoming elections will also be a battle for survival for the Shiv Sena (UBT).
Sanjay Patel, a Mumbai-based political researcher, said the divide between the two major political parties will emerge as one of the biggest factors in the election.
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“The undivided Shiv Sena and NCP were major hurdles for the BJP in making inroads in the state as well as taking control of Mumbai. Now, with the determined division dividing the party, the BJP has the upper hand. Moreover, the BJP also has an advantage as they currently hold power at the Center and the state,” Patel said.
Asif Zakaria, a former member of the Congress Party, said that the party has already begun preparations and internal meetings in preparation for the upcoming elections.
“Since we are not in power, it is sure to be a challenge but we will fight it and have already started our preparations. We will highlight how the BMC has been exploited over the past few years in the absence of elections and lack of accountability. In the coming months, we will point out the blatant corruption and scams over the past few years including beautification and paving of roads,” Zakaria said.
For the Sena (UBT), whose BMC has been a traditional stronghold, political observers said the election would be a key battle.
“After the split, the fight will not be easy considering the dominance and resources that the BJP has,” Patel said.
However, Sachin Badwal, the erstwhile affiliate of Shiv Sena (Undivided) which is now part of Sena UBT, maintained that the defection of its former leaders to the ruling parties will not have any impact on their performance.
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“We are a cadre-based party, so even if some leaders leave, we have male and female pramukh shakhas in each of our 227 wards who are selected for the posts. Shiv Sena voters outperform pro-party voters. Now with two Thackerays coming together, the Marathas are with us,” Badwal told The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, Vinod Mishra, former founder and group leader of BJP’s BMC, said: “Our focus will be to highlight the 11 years of evolution in BJP power and 25 years of Shiv Sena rule that saw rampant corruption at the hands of Uddhav Thackeray on several fronts.”
