Mumbai: BMC and State Election Committee meet to discuss new ward demarcation

MUMBAI: The State Election Commission (SEC) and BMC officers on Wednesday held a meeting to discuss the new ward demarcation and reservation preparation so that the elections can be conducted in the next three-four months.

The erstwhile MVA government had decided to increase the number of wards to 236 from 227 after considering the increase in Mumbai's population. The BMC had conducted the ward reservation lottery for women, OBC and SC-ST communities. However, after the collapse of the MVA government, the Supreme Court had directed the state government to hold elections, and accordingly, BMC again conducted the ward reservation lottery.

Later the Shinde-Fadnavis government reduced the wards from 236 to 227. Therefore, the previous reservation and ward demarcation process become infructuous.

A BMC officer said, "The SEC has organised a meeting with BMC. We will discuss ward demarcation, ward reservation, the formula of ward reservation lottery. Thereafter, we will call suggestions and objections from citizens. This entire process will take 3-4 months. Therefore election may hold in the month of March or April"

This will be the third time when BMC has called a reservation lottery. The first lottery was conducted on May 30, the second one was on July 27. BMC has to spend Rs50 lakh and 400 workers for each ward demarcation and lottery process.