The Shinde-Fadnavis government on Wednesday scrapped the erstwhile state government’s decision to increase the number of BMC wards to 236 from 227. This decision toppled the election prospects of Uddhav Thackeray-lead Shiv Sena.
The BMC has to bear the loss of around 50 lakh which it has used for the pre-election process till today, an officer from the BMC election department said adding that the efforts of around 300 employees also went in vain.
Last year, BMC had conducted ward delimitation processes after the State Election Commission's (SEC) order. According to BMC, the census process was not conducted in the year 2021 because of Covid19. Hence, Considering increase in population of Mumbai, BMC had divided the existing 227 wards and created 9 more wards.
At that time, the Congress and the BJP had objected to the process and alleged that Uddhav Thackeray had madethe ward delimitation favourable for Shiv Sena candidates.
Thereafter, on May 31, BMC had conducted a ward reservation process for SC, ST community. The BMC then brought a voters list which the state election commission prepared till May 31 and made an updated voter list of 236 words and published the list after receiving suggestions and objections. BMC, on July 29, again had drawn OBC ward reservation and women reservation lottery.
Now, After the cabinet decision, this entire process has gone in vain. Sanjog Kabre, deputy municipal commissioner, told FPJ, "We will follow orders of SEC. Now, an ordinance has been issued so we will start our work again. We will again conduct ward reservation processes and prepare a voters' list keeping in mind 227 wards. As per our data around 9 lakh voters have increased in Mumbai."
