BMC will boost no. of booths for February civic polls

MUMBAI: As part of its preparations for the BMC elections scheduled for February next year, the BMC will add around 4,000 polling booths keeping the Covid-19 pandemic in mind.
Currently there are around 7,900 booths, which BMC may need to increase to around 12,000. Each booth is known to have 1,400-1,500 voters now, but will only have around 800 voters for the February 2022 polls.
In May this year, the State Election Commission (SEC) gave the BMC the go-ahead for the civic polls as scheduled in February 2022 and asked the BMC to begin preparations for the elections keeping in mind Covid-19 protocols.
“We are charting out a detailed plan for conducting the BMC elections in view of the pandemic. We will increase the number of booths and create an awareness campaign for upgrading voters’ lists. Our focus right now is to ensure there is no inconvenience to voters,” said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner.
The SEC asked the BMC to begin work on delimitation of electoral wards or rectification of wards which were redrawn in 2017. Since no new census data after the 2011 census is currently available to carry out a full-fledged delimitation exercise, it is likely that only a rectification process will be carried out. The SEC has also asked the BMC to prepare new voter lists based on the voter lists for the 2019 state assembly elections.
“We will try and fully vaccinate all staffers at polling booths and on poll duty. We have also been asked to ensure Covid-appropriate norms are followed while making arrangements,” said the official.
Last time, prior to the 2017 BMC elections, on October 3, 2016, the lottery for reservations was held for the 227 wards and delimitation of wards was officially announced. While 50% seats are reserved for women candidates, from the 50% too there is reservation in for SC, ST and OBC categories among women candidates.
The SEC has said that draft boundaries of electoral wards in Mumbai for the upcoming BMC polls will be published and suggestions and objections will be called before they are finalised. The SEC told the Congress in a written response that the final ward boundaries will be published after considering suggestions and objections.