On Tuesday, November 16, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar responded to Bharatiya Janta Party's (BJP) allegation of "mischief" in the redrawing of ward boundaries ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
Mumbai Mayor said that there have been a split in electoral wards and a change in boundaries in 2017 for political gains. Ideally, each ward or constituency should have a population of around 50,000 so that issues of the citizens can be solved and development work can begin.
Pednekar (also a Shiv Sena corporator), while talking to the Times of India, said that she did not want to reply to the BJP claims during the election process carried out officially under the State Election Commission (SEC).
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However, she added, boundaries were altered, and several wards were broken into two or three parts in the 2017 elections for political gain. It is because of this that in a few wards, the population is 65,000. While in some suburban wards, the population is just 40,000.
If the population is 65,000 it becomes physically impossible for the corporator to cater to such a huge population. Therefore, there is a need to readjust boundaries to end the disparity in population.
Recently, the Maharashtra government cleared the proposal of adding nine corporators to the BMC, bringing the members from 227 to 236 and all the corporators are likely to be added to the Mumbai suburbs. According to the SEC, the BMC polls are scheduled to be held in February 2022.
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