BMC readies for polls amid Covid, seeks panel advice

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sought the direction of the State Election Commission (SEC) to hold municipal elections in 2022 in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Elections to the country's richest municipal body are scheduled for early next year, but officials say new recommendations from the SEC are important in light of the epidemic. The election booths in the city need to be increased because of the need to maintain social distance in the context of Covid. It is known that there are about 15,000 voters in each booth at present and they register to vote throughout the day.

However, officials said it was not practical in the current situation. BMC held an internal meeting with its team on Friday. Before the election, the BMC redraws all municipal ward boundaries. In the 2017 election, each of the 227 wards had an average of 54,000 voters. The SEC had asked BMC to divide the total population by 12.44 million (according to the 2011 census) wards, or 227. However, delimitation is now based on the latest demographics. However, officials said on Monday that a meeting with the SEC had scheduled the census to be held for 2020-21 in the context of Covid.

Ravi Raja, a BMC corporator and opposition leader, said the civil body needs to be extra vigilant. "We have seen recent elections in states like West Bengal and an increase in Covid cases, so the BMC needs to be careful before deciding anything," Raja said. Before the 2017 BMC elections, the reservation lottery was held on October 3, 2016, in 227 wards and the delimitation of wards was announced. Of this, 50% of the seats are reserved for women candidates. There is a parallel reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and OBCs from 50%.