As all political parties are gearing up for the BMC elections 2022, the Congress Leadership in the BMC has demanded a fresh delimitation of all 227 electoral wards in the city, in the run-up to the civic polls. Alleging that demarcation or redrawing of ward boundaries ahead of 2017 civic polls were done to favour the BJP, Leader of opposition (LoP) in BMC has written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, that a fresh delimitation should be done.
In a letter to the CM, Congress corporator and LoP in the BMC, Ravi Raja, alleged the delimitation exercise ahead of 2017 elections favoured the BJP, which was the ruling party in the state government then. The exercise in 2017, especially affected many corporators in the suburbs, whose wards are now divided into as many as four parts, Raja said.
"The BJP got 40-50 seats more than they would have if there was fair delimitation. This was against natural justice. Many had opposed the delimitation exercise then, still, the delimitation of wards was allowed by the BJP-led state government to favour its party in the civic poll, "Raja said.
He added, "BJP had then carried out the delimitation of wards misusing its power, and neglected the objection taken by various stakeholders. This is a very serious issue and I have drawn the attention of concerned authorities including the CM and senior state congress leadership. This needs to be addressed and fair delimitation of wards should be carried out before the elections."
However, Vinod Mishra, BJP corporator from Kurar Village in Malad criticised Raja saying this is nothing but a cheap tactic by the city congress leadership to save face in upcoming civic polls. "Let them get fresh delimitations of electoral wards, nothing will help them win elections. People of this country have rejected Congress from everywhere, citizens of Mumbai too rejected them. BJP is not banking on any delimitation of wards to win elections."
