The city will witness a third lottery for reservation of seats for elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, after the Bombay High Court dismissed petitions against the ordinance of the state government to reduce the number of wards to 227 from 236. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election is held every five years and the term of the office ended on March 7, 2022.  The election was supposed to take place in February 2022, but it was  postponed over various issues. One of the reasons is the changing number of seats for the election. The high court dismissed the petitions which challenged the ordinance passed by the current state government on Monday.

“Now the Election Commission (EC) will restart the process in which they can change the boundaries of 227 seats based on various factors like population, natural boundaries, etc. Then there will be suggestions/objections and a lottery for reservation of wards for categories like women, OBC, SC, ST, etc,” said a BMC official. The BMC had received a letter from the Urban Development Department on November 22, 2022 to start the process as per the ordinance of the state government.