Mumbai: District Collector Ashwini Joshi urges voters to enrol in special drive ahead of MCGM polls

As per the current voter population of Mumbai City district, the total voter population now stands at 23.95 lakh.

Mumbai, Sep 14 : Kick-starting the administrative preparedness for the upcoming 2017 Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) polls, Mumbai City District Collector Ashwini Joshi today asked eligible voters to enrol their names in the voter list. She also asked the voters to make necessary corrections to their names in the voter list during the summary revision of electoral rolls between September 16 to October 14. As per the current voter list, the city district voter population in comparison to the 2012 voter list has seen a drop by 3.99 lakh, Joshi told reporters here. Besides this, the ensuing delimitation of existing civic wards is likely to see a reduction of seven civic wards from the Mumbai City district boundaries and their subsequent addition to the Mumbai suburban district, she said. Also Read: Mumbai BMC Elections 2017: Nobody can stop BJP from coming to power in MCGM, says CM Deverndra Fadnavis

As per the current voter population of Mumbai City district, the total voter population now stands at 23.95 lakh. This includes 13.18 lakh male, 10.77 lakh female and 83 trans-gender voters. Compared to the total voter population of 27.94 lakh voters during the 2012 MCGM polls, there is a drop of 3.99 lakh voters in Mumbai City district. The Collector said that a special campaign for voter registration will be taken on two days ? on September 18 and October 9 (both Sundays).

“The voter registration and corrections to the voters lists will be taken up at the central offices in 10 assembly segments and 218 specially designated centers in Mumbai City district,” she added. Joshi said on both the days the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in association with the Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of political parties shall cooperate in enrolling as many voters as they can. Eligible voters and those intending to make corrections in the voters list can contact Voter Help Center (VHC) on 1950 for voter list information, she said. Commenting on the decline in the voter population in the Mumbai City district, she said that the decline had been due to migration of voters from city limits to Mumbai suburban district and beyond.

“The election machinery has been able to ensure enrolment of 83 trans-genders in the others category of voters. Out of which a maximum of 35 were registered in Sion-Koliwada While nine trans-genders have registered in Mumbadevi Assembly constituency, the number is seven for Byculla and one for Malabar Hill. A special drive was taken for their enrolment in pockets like Nagpada, Kamathipura, Sion Koliwada and Dharavi with the help of NGOs working amongst the trans-gender and Commercial Sex Workers, Joshi said. As per the 2011 Census the total population of Mumbai stood at 1.24 crore, of which Mumbai City district population is 30.85 lakh and that of Mumbai Suburban district 93.56 lakh.

Meanwhile, sources in the State Election Commission (SEC) said that in the 2012 MCGM elections since the ward-wise break up of the population of 2011 Census was not available, the delimitation exercise of the 227 electoral wards was not possible then. However, now the delimitation process of election wards will be carried out by the committee comprising of civic commissioner, District Collector’s of Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban districts and SEC officials, they said. As per tentative figures, one election ward each from MCGM’s administrative wards ? A, B, C, D and E and two election wards from G North ward are likely to be less.

Besides this, one election ward each from Mumbai Suburban district ? H East and N ward of MCGM are also likely to be reduced. Sources in the SEC also said that those civic election wards which are larger in size in the Mumbai Suburban district will become compact. Currently out of the 227 civic electoral wards there are 62 in Mumbai City district and 165 civic electoral wards in Mumbai Suburban district. Seven electoral wards from city district will add up to the electoral wards in Mumbai Suburban district. However, there will be no change in the district wise break-up of the administrative wards of the civic body, they informed.