Bombay HC rejects plea against increasing BMC seats: What it means in 5 points

MUMBAI: The Bombay High court on Monday dismissed a plea by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), challenging the Maharashtra government’s decision to increase the number of electoral seats in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The state government on December 3 last year increased the number of electoral seats in the BMC from 227 to 236 ahead of the civic elections of 2022.

Here is a look at why this decision is significant, and how it is set to impact Mumbai.

Change came after 2 decades

The BMC seats are being increased after nearly two decades. The government last increased the number of electoral wards in the city in 2001 when their number went up from 221 to 227. This change was made after 10 years. Ahead of the 1992 civic polls, the city’s electoral wards were increased from 170 to 221.

Addresses the change in Mumbai’s population

The current composition of the civic body has been unchanged since 2001. The state government did not increase the number of corporators in 2011 even when the population increased by 3.87% between 2001 and 2011. BMC has maintained that in the past 20 years, many people residing in the island city have relocated to the western and eastern suburbs. Officials said that this intra-city migration has also affected the population density of Mumbai as the rate of population in the island city has fallen while the population in the suburban belt has seen massive growth. According to senior officials of BMC’s election department, it was important to increase the number of wards to maintain a uniform voter-councillor ratio since the city’s population has risen by 4% in 20 years.

Boundaries of many electoral wards will change

According to BMC officials, five electoral wards will be added in the western suburbs, three in the eastern suburbs, and one in the island city. BMC will divide the projected population of Mumbai by 236 to determine the ideal population per ward. A 10% variation difference from this average figure will be considered acceptable. If any electoral ward has a population above that figure, a part of the ward will be added to a new ward. This is likely to have a ripple effect on many wards.

Will impact local political calculations

Presently, the Shiv Sena has 97 corporators in BMC, the BJP has 83 corporators, Congress has 29 and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has nine (one of them was disqualified in a court case on reservation), and the Samajwadi Party (SP) has seven (one of them was disqualified in a court case). With the change in boundaries of multiple wards, the political arithmetic in electoral wards is likely to change and thus may have an impact on the plans of political parties.

Upholds state election commission’s powers

The high court order upholds the right of the state election commission, a statutory body, to change the number of electoral seats. This decision by the state government to increase the number of seats from 227 to 236 in BMC has received the state election commission’s (SEC) nod.