After the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) last week submitted a final draft of rectified electoral ward boundaries of 227 electoral wards to the State Election Commission (SEC), the Bhartiya Janat Party (BJP) corporators protested at the civic headquarters opposing the move. The BJP leaders have alleged that what was submitted to SEC is rectification that will benefit Shiv Sena.

A BJP corporator from Mulund and the party's group leader in the Mumbai civic body Prabhakar Shinde alleged that the draft of rectification of wards was made under political pressure from the ruling party.

He said, "No official was taken in confidence, this was not discussed with any party leaders. The draft that has been submitted to SEC is the plan that was prepared under the pressure of the Shiv Sena and the Shiv Sena has made changes in the draft that were complementary and in favour of the party."

Opposing the rectification of electoral wards draft submitted by the Mumbai civic body ahead of the civic polls next year, the BJP has demanded forensic audit of the draft/data submitted to the SEC and has further threatened to approach the Bombay High Court.

On Monday, the BJP corporators surrounded the BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal as a protest and presented him with one rose each.

Another BJP corporator from Malad east, Vinod Mishra said, "We have learnt from sources and a few officials that the original draft that was prepared by the BMC Assistant Election and Town Duty Officer was not the one that was submitted. However, the draft plan that was submitted on October 26, seems to be different and rectified by the Shiv sena to favour them. We suspect that the pen drive that was submitted to the BMC commissioner by Assistant Election and Town Duty Officer was not submitted to SEC, instead, a different pen drive was submitted. We have demanded a forensic audit of the draft submitted to SEC. We will soon write to SEC seeking an investigation in the matter."

Meanwhile, BMC’s election department officials said they had completed the rectification of boundaries of constituencies and around 20 per cent boundaries have been changed. Officials added that the changes were made based on deletion and addition of voters in those respective ward constituencies.

A BMC official said, "With changes in 25 per cent ward boundaries, around 60 wards’ boundaries have been altered as per the draft plan. Rectification has been done, but the delimitation of all 227 constituencies was not done yet. Only once we get approval from SEC, we would seek suggestions and objections from citizens and other stakeholders on changes and suggestions to be included in the draft plan."

In August 2021 SEC had directed municipal corporations to begin delimitation of ward boundaries. SEC had told local bodies to send draft reports early.

Officials said delimitation is usually done out based on new census data, and only if there is a more than 10 per cent change in the population of the ward constituency. “Boundaries were rectified based on population, updation of voters’ lists, inclusion/exclusion of areas in a ward based on the change in residential population due to redevelopment, infrastructure projects and slum rehabilitation projects,” the official said.

Shiv Sena and Congress both sought rectification of ward boundaries, alleging that demarcation or redrawing of ward boundaries ahead of 2017 civic polls were done to favour the BJP. They alleged that the demarcation exercise in 2017, especially affected many corporators in the suburbs, whose wards were divided into as many as four parts.

Leader of Opposition in BMC and Congress corporator Ravi Raja had last year written to the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray seeking permission for a fresh demarcation of wards. Raja said: "What was done ahead of 2017 elections was against natural justice. Many had opposed the delimitation exercise then, still, the delimitation of wards was allowed by the BJP-led state government to favour its party in the civic poll."

He added, "BJP had then carried out the delimitation of wards misusing its power, and neglected the objection taken by various stakeholders. "

The Congress had written to the SEC earlier this year seeking rectification of at least 45 ward boundaries that it said was allegedly changed by the BJP to favour the party in the 2017 civic polls.

There are 227 corporator wards or constituencies in BMC. Officials said delimitation or redrawing of ward boundaries was done to balance voter population equally among wards. Officials said that as per 2011 census, population growth in suburbs and drop in island city were taken into account while redrawing electoral wards. Each ward had a population of around 54,000.

Arguing on the census point, BJP leaders has written to SEC in June 2021 opposing delimitation of electoral wards, arguing that latest Census data is not available.

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