As many as 1,700 candidates are in the fray for 227 seats in the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) being held across Mumbai today. Apart from Mumbai, 28 other muncipal corporations are voting today across Maharashtra.
Officials said all arrangements have been made for peaceful and orderly polling today. A total of 10,231 polling stations have been set up across Mumbai and 64,375 officers and staff have been deployed.
The fight for control of the BMC, which is country's richest civic body, is three-corneredinvolving the Thackeray cousins—Raj and Uddhav—aligned with Sharad Pawar’s NCP, the BJP–Shiv Sena alliance, and the Congress–Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).
Voting began at 7.30 am and ends at 5.30 pm today. Counting of votes will be conducted at 23 designated centres across Mumbai under the supervision of the respective Returning Officers (ROs) on January 16.
How to check your polling booth
Here is step-by-step guide to verify your name in the electoral list online:
-Visit the National Voter’s Service Portal (NVSP) at nvsp.in
-Go to the ‘Search in Electoral Roll’ section
-Look up your details by entering personal information or your EPIC (Elector Photo Identity Card) number
-Once submitted, the portal will display your voter registration status
How to find your polling station via the ECI portal
You can find your polling station on Election Commission of India website by following these steps
-Visit the electoral search page at electoralsearch.eci.gov.in
-Enter your EPIC number and select your state
-Fill the captcha verification and click on ‘Search’
-The system will display your polling station’s name and address
Voters can also verify their details through the Election Commission’s Voter Helpline App, which can be downloaded from eci.gov.in/voter-helpline-app/.
Why is BMC poll held after 9 years?
The last BMC polls were held in 2017. The term of the corporators ended on 7 March 2022, and subsequent elections could not be held in time, resulting in the civic body being placed under the administration of an administrator.
The fight for control of the BMC is three-cornered, involving major political players in the region.
In Maharashtra, the civic body elections, originally scheduled for 2020, were deferred initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, the civic elections, originally scheduled for March 2022, were deferred again following the Supreme Court’s (SC) decision to allow the Other Backwards Class (OBC) quota in local body elections only after conducting a rigorous empirical inquiry.
In Mumbai, the additional issue of delimitation of municipal wards further delayed the civic polls.
