How Mumbai’s redevelopment frenzy is forcing parties to rethink BMC poll strategy

Voters are on the move as redevelopment of old buildings picks pace in Mumbai, and political parties are scrambling to track their supporters ahead of civic polls.

Two adjacent plots being redeveloped in Chembur, a Mumbai locality | Photo: Manasi Phadke | ThePrint

Mumbai: The frenzied redevelopment of old buildings all around Mumbai is posing a peculiar challenge for politicians in the city as they prepare for civic polls likely to be held early next year.

A significant number of their voters in certain municipal wards of the city have been displaced, having temporarily changed residence with their building under redevelopment.

Political parties are conducting internal surveys to identify these wards and the voters who might have moved, and track them down.

A senior Mumbai-based Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader who did not wish to be named told ThePrint that the party has identified at least four wards across Mumbai where the result will depend on whether the party is able to bring the voters who have moved out back to their original voting centres on the D-Day.

“There is one such ward in North East Mumbai, and a few in North Mumbai and North Central Mumbai. We have identified the wards and will make concerted efforts to reach out to our voters,” the leader said.

Under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), there are 24 administrative wards and 227 councillor wards.

For the past couple of years, hectic construction activity has been on all around the city, with several old private buildings in various stages of redevelopment.

Developers peg the number of such buildings under redevelopment at about 2,050. In almost every neighbourhood, one can spot multiple buildings hidden behind barricades, with demolishers hard at work.

This frenetic redevelopment is now generating new housing stock even in saturated pockets of the city, like Bandra, Colaba, Andheri and Chembur, where there was hardly any new residential real estate for decades.

As a result, many of the original residents of areas where buildings are under redevelopment have possibly moved out temporarily from their immediate neighbourhood. While most residents look for rental accommodation in the vicinity of their original residence, the demand for rental housing in certain neighbourhoods seeing hectic redevelopment activity has shot up, leading to rentals going up, and people having to look for options elsewhere, experts say.

This redevelopment activity is separate from the large slum redevelopment projects and revamp of big public housing colonies such as Bombay Development Directorate chawls that the Maharashtra government is leading.

‘Even 60-80 votes can swing the needle in local polls’

A senior leader from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena part of the team overseeing the party’s strategy in Mumbai told ThePrint that the party has instructed its cadre to verify the voter list by going door-to-door, and help new voters get registered.

A senior leader associated with the strategy for Mumbai said: “Right now, in Mumbai, the biggest issue from the point of elections is that a lot of buildings and societies have gone for redevelopment. This means, voters could be voting out of the councillor ward boundaries temporarily and will also be getting dispersed, making targeted campaigning for large groups, communities and societies difficult.”

The leader added that in local elections, even 60-80 votes in a particular ward can impact the poll.

“Once we have exact data on where our voters are, we will be able to design our ground campaign accordingly,” he said.

‘Not a new phenomenon, but will need a unique approach’

Vishakha Raut, a former corporator from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), said the phenomenon was not necessarily new and politicians had been facing this issue every time a major slum in their ward went in for redevelopment.

“But in slum redevelopment projects, sometimes all residents are housed together in transit tenements at one place. So, it is easier for us to track our voters. It is not a new problem. It’s just grown in magnitude. When voters are scattered, we will need to put in more effort for coordination,” Raut said.

She added that every political party will be making this effort in the next couple of months. Local leaders will arrange for all displaced voters to gather at a common place to be able to campaign effectively, she said.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant too said that places such as Bandra have seen large-scale displacement of people due to slum revamp projects.

“So, it is not something we aren’t used to. But with so many private buildings also going for redevelopment, we will need to think of a unique approach to reach out to our voters,” he told ThePrint.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)