BMC local body passed Sena proposal to increase the term of electoral wards

The Shiv Sena's proposal to extend the term of election wards from the current five years to 10 years was passed by the BMC General Body on Tuesday.  Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Chahal will comment on the proposal and hand it over to the State Urban Development Department for final approval.  

 

The UD department is headed by Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde. If this proposal is repealed, there will be major changes to the BMC elections scheduled for early next year, as the ward reservation for all sitting corporations will not change.  

 

The state government will have to amend the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act to change the reservation lottery to five to 10 years, officials said.  Political analysts say this will help the Shiv Sena stay in power.  Shiv Sena corporate and civil standing committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav said the seat reservation lottery should be held every 10 years as the reservation impact development activities are being changed regularly due to uncertainty in the election wards.  Reservation eliminates the motivation for corporates to act.  

 

There is always uncertainty.  Delimitation takes place every 10 years, so the reservation must change at the same time.  This will help the corporators to work better.  The 'MMC Act' should be changed before next year's BMC elections,”he said.  The Congress demanded that the boundaries of the constituency be redrawn.  

 

Congress corporator Ravi Raja, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the BMC, alleged that the government led by former Devendra Fadnavis changed the boundaries of the constituency in 2017 to help BJP candidates.

 

 

 

Under current law, before each municipal election, a lottery is held to determine which of the 227 wards of the BMC will be open for candidates from the open category and will be reserved.  In addition, 50% of the seats are already reserved for women.  Every 10 years, the state conducts a population census and reconstructs ward boundaries accordingly, known as delimitation.

 

In the 2017 BMC elections, out of 227 wards, 149 were for general category candidates (74 for women and 75 for men), 61 for OBC nominees (31 for women and 30 for men), 15 for SC candidates (eight women), seven for men and two for ST nominees (each for women and men).  ).  There were a total of 114 women's seats.