The BMC elections in Mumbai have always been a paradox. At one level, there has been historic public apathy towards the local body polls, wherein people don't think of them as a "bada" election— like the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha, which elect our Prime Minister and Chief Minister respectively. The only exception to this rule was in 2017, when Mumbai broke past records, and had its highest voter turnout at 55.13%. However, on the other hand, the BMC elections are nothing short of a mini assembly election, given the sheer size of the BMC budget — now at 39,000 crores, which is greater than the budget of several Indian states; and the population of Mumbai — which closes in on the 2 crore mark with every passing year.
What is truly disappointing is that the entire electoral process in the run-up to the elections has been delayed, with much opacity. To begin with, the BMC passed a resolution in March 2021 wherein reservations were to remain unchanged for 10 years, as opposed to the existing norm of five years; which is to say that the seats reserved as per gender and caste were to remain the same for another five-year term beyond 2022. There was a great brouhaha in the media about this being the rule henceforth, but despite all the noise, the proposal never actually made it to the Urban Development Department, or to the two houses of the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra.
Ordinarily, reservations are reallocated every five years through a system of lottery and rotation. For the February 2017 BMC polls, the whole process of the reservation of wards was completed by October 3, 2016. Presently, for the 2022 elections, there is no notification from the UD Department for the local body's reallocation of reservation, and it is only post such a notification from the UD Department, that the Election Commission will issue an order, and the BMC will subsequently hold its lottery. Moreover, this time around, there is also the process of delimitation, which ordinarily would take into consideration the change in the topography and landscape in a particular ward, due to various developmental activities. This year, there is also a strong allegation of gerrymandering against the powers that be, and ward boundaries being unfairly changed to suit partisan political interest.
Allegations and counter-allegations notwithstanding, an excessively delayed reservation declaration and delimitation almost certainly ensures that the electorate of a constituency and their respective candidates are not allowed to adequately engage or build a relationship, leaving voters in a state of an ominous informational asymmetry — which adversely affects the quality of their voting choices. The state cabinet recently resolved to increase the number of seats in the BMC by nine, to reflect the change in population as per the 2011 Census. Thus, the sum total of seats will now stand at 236. This has led to further confusion and ambiguity as to how the delimitation scheme will progress.
World over, election campaign time is sufficiently long, so as to enable percolation of ideas and actual debate on the ground for issues that actually matter to voters — something which can only take place legitimately after the reservation and delimitation is finalised. Why then should Mumbai be a singular exception? The solution to the ills of democracy is deeper democracy, and certainly not less democracy. Irrespective of the ongoing controversial discourse on delimitation and reservations, there is a general need for a longer period of electioneering. This will not only enable the candidates to reach out to the electorate, but also help the electorate understand their candidates better: It is a two-way process. Presently, what voters get is a truncated political discourse, with little time for the candidate and the electorate to get to know each other, in the context of a high decibel campaign, which almost always reduces itself to something of a shouting match.
The delay may not be reflected in terms of the dates of the BMC election, but it certainly impacts the quality of the public discourse preceding the election. Local body elections are the polls that truly impact the lives of voters. Water, roads, footpaths, drainage, open spaces, garbage management, primary healthcare, primary education — almost 60% of public policy and civic issues that directly affect our day-to-day lives, depends on the quality of government at the local body level. Hence, it is extremely vital that we do all that can be done, to enable a deeper political conversation, which in turn will enable better representatives to be elected. And it is only when better people are elected, that we will have a better government — something that Mumbai has been crying out for, for decades now.
(Ruben Mascarenhas is the Working President of AAP Mumbai, and Ratnabh Mukerjei is Policy and Communications Coordinator of AAP Mumbai.)
