BMC Election in February only if Covid situation permits: Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar

bmc election 2022 — Image Source : PTI (FILE)
BMC Election in February only if Covid situation permits: Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar has informed that the next Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls will be held in January-February next year. Pednekar, however, said that polls will be conducted only if the Covid-19 situation is under control.

"BMC polls will be conducted next year in January-February if the COVID situation is under control, in case it's not, polls will be postponed," she said.

The State Election Commission (SEC) had on Monday directed the BMC to start preliminary preparation for the civic polls. The BMC election department had written a letter to the SEC seeking instructions for pre-poll preparatory works.

The commission granted a go-ahead to the civic body. With this, the delimitation of wards will be done on the basis of population. Also, notification will be issued for ward-wise reservations. Besides, updating of voters list will be done before the final list is released.

The current tenure of the Shiv Sena-ruled BMC will end on March 7 next year. Besides BMC, the terms of 17 other corporations including Thane, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur will end.

Elections for five municipal corporations including Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar and Kalyan-Dombivali were not held earlier due to pandemic.

BMC is the country's richest civic body and its yearly budget allocation is more than many states' budget.