MUMBAI: The state election commission (SEC) has begun preparations for the polls to over 687 local bodies, expected to be held from October onwards. The polls are likely to be held in two to three phases and may have separate counting of votes for each phase.
Preceding the polls will be the delimitation of wards. According to the state government programme, the municipal corporations, including the BMC, are expected to complete the exercise by September 4, while D-class municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats have to do this by September 1. The SEC will then hold hearings of all stakeholders.
Once the ward boundaries are finalised by the SEC, the booth-wise number of voters is ascertained, followed by the reservation of the wards. “As the district level machinery has started the process of ward formation at the local level, we have been working on the booth-wise finalisation of voters on the basis of the recent assembly election electoral rolls,” said an SEC official. “The addition of voters, which will go on till the elections are announced, will result in an increase in the number of booths in the polling stations.”
The ward formation, which is done on the basis of the 2011 census, addition/deletion of villages to a particular local body, conversion of gram panchayats to nagar panchayats and addition of administrative wards lead to changes in ward boundaries. “For instance, newer administrative wards have been added in Mumbai since the last elections,” said an official from the urban development department. “Then the redevelopment of colonies and construction of roads has led to changes in the maps. There are also other reasons—for instance, some villages in the Kalyan-Dombivali municipal corporation were excluded four years ago.”
Multi-phase voting and phase-wise counting
The SEC, which faces the Herculean task of holding polls to over 80% of local bodies together, is likely to hold them in two or three phases. The gap between these phases is also expected to be long due to the huge number of local bodies, involvement of a larger election machinery, multi-member wards leading to a rise in voting machines and the election coinciding with festivals like Dussehra and Diwali.
A senior BJP minister confirmed that the SEC was considering the possibility of holding phase-wise polls. “The delimitation exercise for the urban local bodies will be completed faster, and the SEC could hold these elections in the first phase,” he said. “In almost 30% of the districts, there are no municipal corporations so we can hold elections of municipal councils and nagar panchayats along with district councils. Barring Mumbai, other municipal corporations have multi-member wards and will need more EVMs and election machinery. Similarly, municipal councils have a multi-member system, and their chairpersons too are elected directly by voters. Taking all this into account, more phases make sense.”
The SEC is expected to propose the idea of phase-wise elections and separate counting and results during their meeting with political parties. The opposition parties are likely to oppose this, as it could benefit the ruling parties. “The political parties are expected to be convinced by saying that a wider gap in phases may help them get more time for campaigning,” said the officer. “Secondly, the shortage of EVMs, their storage, and manpower for their protection could be challenges before the SEC, and could be held as strong reasons for phase-wise results.”
Shortage of EVMs
The SEC is expected to face a shortage of EVMS in these polls. Of the 75,000 EVMs that it owns, 70,000 are in working condition against the requirement of 1.25 to 1.50 EVMs. The SEC has been tapping the option of procuring additional EVMs from the Election Commission of India or other states. It could also order new machines.
“The agency providing new machines has to be alerted, as it takes three months to get new manufactured stock,” said an SEC official. “But if a phase-wise counting of votes is done, the same machines could be used for at least two phases.”
Political importance
The local body polls to 687 of 809 bodies are seen as mini assembly polls, as over 80% bodies will decide the fate of the state’s political parties, especially after the split in the NCP and Shiv Sena in the last three years. The simultaneous polls are also being seen as the litmus test of the ‘One Nation One Election’ concept the central government has been pushing.
“The ruling parties have the upper hand for obvious reasons,” said a Sena leader. “The ruling BJP-Shiv Sena (undivided) won most of the bodies that went to the polls during their government from 2014-2019. With the NCP joining the government, the Mahayuti has a fair chance of retaining most of the local bodies.”