Updated On: 31 December, 2025 10:20 AM IST | Mumbai | Eeshanpriya MS
As BMC election nears, mid-day looks at the H West and East wards, characterised by bungalows, low-rise apartments, a glitzy financial district, and slum pockets

Bandra Kurla Complex, a business district in H East ward, is responsible for the rapid gentrification in the surrounding areas. File Pic/Shadab Khan
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Characterised by extremely active citizen groups, Bandra’s H West ward has a history of some of the most astounding political swings in the city. The ward comprises Bandra, Khar, and Santacruz, with a mix of bungalows, low-rise old residential buildings, fast-developing gaothans, and traffic snarls caused by rapid redevelopment.
In 2017, the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged three seats in H West, up from its representation of only one corporator in 2012. On the other hand, the Congress lost three seats in the area, and bagged only one electoral ward, against four in 2012. While it is the home turf of former BJP Mumbai president and senior party leader Ashish Shelar, who was elected to Maharashtra’s legislative body in 2024 from this seat, Congress’s Varsha Gaikwad won the Lok Sabha poll from the area. It’s lone Congress corporator and the face of the party from the area, Asif Zakaria, can no longer contest from the area due to BMC reservations this year.