BMC Elections Today: What does the India’s richest civic body do, roles, responsibilities | Explained

Polling for the 2,869 seats spread across 893 wards will begin at 7.30 am and conclude at 5.30 pm on January 15. A total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 15,931 candidates, including 1,700 in Mumbai and 1,166 in Pune.

New Delhi: Maharashtra is all set to cast its ballot for 29 municipal corporations, but the main contest will be in Mumbai. In Mumbai, the BJP-led Mahayuti is locked in a battle with the united Thackeray front for control of the cash-rich BMC. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has already predicted that the MNS leader Raj Thackeray would emerge as the biggest loser in his alliance with cousin and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray. The chief minister further added that the coming together of both NCP factions in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad as merely a localised development.

Fadnavis rued that Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar broke the rule that the alliance partners will not speak against each other. CM Fadnavis led the ruling alliance’s canvassing, traversing the state to campaign for candidates of the Mahayuti, which includes the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. NCP, the third partner in the Mahayuti, was strategically excluded to attract “non-Hindu” voters, observers said.

It is important to note that this will be the Shiv Sena’s first Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election since the 2022 split, when Eknath Shinde broke away with a majority of the party’s legislators, along with its name and symbol.

Here are some of the important details:

• Polling for the 2,869 seats spread across 893 wards will begin at 7.30 am and conclude at 5.30 pm on January 15.
• A total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 15,931 candidates, including 1,700 in Mumbai and 1,166 in Pune.
• Counting of votes will take place on January 16.
• More than 25,000 police personnel, including senior officers, will be deployed across Mumbai to oversee elections to the BMC and vote counting.
• Except for Mumbai, the other 28 urban bodies have multi-member wards.
• Elections to 29 municipal corporations are being held after a gap of over six years, with their terms having ended between 2020 and 2023.
• Of these, nine fall within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the most urbanised belt in India.

The battlegrounds include Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Mumbai, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.

Why BMC Stands Apart?

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has an annual budget of around Rs 74,000 crore which makes it stand apart. It is important to note that BMC has more money at its disposal than several Indian states, including Goa, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. It also employs about 1.15 lakh people, including permanent and contractual staff, making it one of the largest civic employers in the country.

In BMC, the administration is led by the municipal commissioner, a senior IAS officer who holds executive powers. They are assisted by four additional municipal commissioners and a joint municipal commissioner.

The elected wing is led by the mayor, whose role is largely ceremonial, with most of the decision-making powers resting with the commissioner.

The responsibilities of BMC:

The BMC functions as Mumbai’s local government and is responsible for services that residents depend on daily. These services are:

• Roads
• Water supply
• Waste management
• Public health & education
• Building infrastructure
• Public transport & open spaces