Mumbai BMC elections will be only held in November or December 2023 or Jan-Feb 2024?

MUMBAI:  With the Election Commission of India (ECI) declaring that the real Shiv Sena belongs to the Eknath Shinde camp, it was very obvious that Uddhav Thackeray would approach the Supreme Court against the order.

The final outcome of this appeal against the order of the ECI is likely to take at least three months and no final verdict could be expected before March-end or mid-April. It could get further delayed and as the Supreme Court would be on vacation during the month of May, it is possible that the matter could stretch out into June.

Once the rains begin in Mumbai, there is no way the BMC polls will be held during the monsoon period. Post that the Dahi Handi (Govinda), Ganpati, Dussehra and Diwali festivals will ensure that BMC polls won’t be held before November-end.

There is one more case pending in the Supreme court regarding the disqualification of the Sena MLAs who joined the Shinde camp, which could take much longer and is very likely to cross over into the June (post-May vacation) slot.

Then there is the delimitation of wards issue, which is also pending in the Supreme Court. In a related matter pertaining to the delimitation of wards, the Bombay High court has winded up arguments, but reserved the order. The party which does not get the desired or expected verdict is again likely to appeal in the Supreme court, dragging this issue too for another six months.

Keeping all this in mind and the monsoon season, it is very unlikely that the BMC elections will be held anywhere before November this year.

Further, there are rumours that the BMC polls, as well as the polls to the other Municipalities and Municipal Corporations in Maharashtra could either be clubbed with the Lok Sabha elections next year or may be held only in January-February next year (2024).

Maharashtra State Assembly elections are also due in October-November 2024 and 2024 is going to be a mega election year for the western State.