Mumbai: Despite winning 24 more corporator seats than Shiv Sena (UBT) in the recently held BMC elections, BJP will find itself on near equal footing with its rival when it comes to control of ward committees—the civic bodies that wield real, on-the-ground power.At the ward committee level, both BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) are likely to head eight each, while Shiv Sena will not get the chairmanship of even one. Congress will likely head three.The paradox lies in the geography of the mandate. While BJP corporators are spread across the city, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s elected representatives are heavily concentrated in eight wards, giving the party numerical dominance where it matters most for ward-level control. Ward committee chairmanships are decided based on which party has the highest number of corporators in a particular ward. These committees play a crucial role in clearing local civic works, such as drainage, water supply and meter-related projects, of up to Rs 5 lakh, making them key centres of everyday govt. Members comprise a quorum of elected corporator members from the wards that fall under these committees. As a result, the party which has the maximum number of corporators in a committee will automatically have its chairperson in it. For example, the G-North (Dadar, Mahim and Matunga) administrative ward will have 11 corporators—six from Shiv Sena (UBT), two from Congress, and one each from BJP and Shiv Sena. Therefore, this ward is likely to have a Shiv Sena (UBT) chairperson. Sanjay Patil, research coordinator from department of civics and politics at University of Mumbai, said while it is already clear that Shiv Sena (UBT) will not have its corporator as chairman of key BMC committees, like the all-powerful standing committee and the improvement committee, in grassroots-level committees headed by its corporators, it will get an opportunity to influence the works being carried out in the wards. “The ward committee chairmanships are also a key post as far as grassroots-level politics is concerned and every political party wants to have a stake in the power dynamics here too.” This House term will also see two significant firsts —the number of ward committees will increase from 17 to 18 following the bifurcation of the K-East ward into K-North and K-South, and AIMIM, which emerged as the single largest party in the M-East ward, will get to head a ward committee. Meanwhile, in wards S (covering Bhandup, Vikhroli, Kanjurmarg and Nahur) and T (Mulund), the contest is set to go down to the wire, with an equal number of governing alliance and opposition corporators. In the event of a tie, the ward committee chairman will be decided by a drawing of lots. This also indicates that seat tallies alone do not guarantee control and micro-level ward arithmetic can often outweigh a citywide victory.
