Congress leader Milind Deora demands scrapping of BMC ward boundaries, quota

Milind Deora has alleged that the MVA did not take account of 800 objections while redrawing ward boundaries. File pic

The Congress has demanded redrawing of the city's civic wards, and redo their reservation, citing biased restructuring that favours the Shiv Sena. Party leader and former Union minister Milind Deora has written to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis in this regard.

Deora has said that the 800 objections - both political and apolitical ones - were not taken into consideration by the then state government. "The letters need to be taken into account now. The new ward boundaries and quota benefits only the Sena. At least, 20 out of 30 wards the Congress won in 2017 have been restructured wrongly and caused a massive loss to the Congress. Reserving the opposition leader Ravi Raja's ward and many others is an act that damages democratic process," Deora wrote.

Also read: BMC Asia's most corrupt civic body: Ex-Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora

The former city Congress president said that out of the Congress-held 30 wards, 21 have been reserved for women. "Our former corporators have decided to move the court against the non-transparent process," he said, adding that increasing the number of wards from 227 to 236 was done without considering the latest (local) census. "The 2019 census figures were ignored. I assume that you agree with the opinion that injustice has been done, and hence I request you to scrap the boundaries and reservation," the leader said.

Deora has suggested an independent committee to carry out the exercise and requested the CM to invite all parties to seek their opinion. "The OBC quota decision is also expected soon. It is time we solved the BMC's reservation issue too," he said. Earlier, BJP leaders had also demanded that ward boundaries be redrawn when the MVA government was in place and have petitioned the new government as well.