Why do parties want to have offices in the BMC building?

There were five party offices inside the BMC HQ, one each for the Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Samajwadi Party (SP). All these offices were located on the ground floor of the old municipal building.

What is the purpose of having party offices in the BMC?

Representatives cutting across party lines said that these offices serve as an interface between common people and the BMC administration. Officers of the BMC are not as approachable as public representatives, they said.

Vinod Shelar, the BJP’s secretary in Mumbai who served as corporator from 2012-17, told The Indian Express that elected representatives do not have offices inside the BMC building from where they can carry out their official duties, including studying the agenda for committee meetings, writing and preparing for speeches, shortlisting issues to address during the session, and preparing motions and points of order.

“The municipal corporators don’t have any dedicated chamber or workstation neither at the ward office nor at the headquarters. Therefore, they use these party offices as their workplace, where they read and write, hold meetings, and meet with the common people who come to seek the resolution of several local issues,” Shelar said.

Even though their tenure officially ended in March, the former corporators say people still come to them.

“These offices are being used mainly for public service. The corporators act as a bridge between the common citizens and administrations, therefore people come to us with various issues, even when our official terms are over. There are issues like inflated bills on property tax and medical bills in civic hospitals, land disputes, for which the citizens often come to us for advice since the officials are not very easily approachable. These kinds of meetings are being held at these offices now,” said Asif Zakaria, former Congress corporator from Bandra (West). Zakaria has been a corporator since 2007.

How are these offices allotted to the political parties?

The offices are allotted to parties based on their strength in the BMC house. At present, the Shiv Sena has the highest number of elected corporators in the BMC (97), followed by the BJP (80, Congress (31), NCP (9), and SP (6). The AIMIM has 2 seats, and the MNS 1 seat.

The Sena and BJP have the largest offices — around 2,000 sq ft — followed by the Congress (around 1,000 sq ft). The offices of the NCP and SP are smaller, since they have fewer corporators.

According to the rules, the offices are under the ownership of the civic body and after every election, they are allotted to parties depending on the results.

“During the 1970s and until the middle of the 1980s, the Congress was the largest party. From 1997 onward, the Sena became the number one party in the BMC and they were allotted the largest office. Until 2017, the BJP had around 30-35 seats, so we were using a smaller office. But after the 2017 polls, the situation changed, and this led to the administration allotting us a larger office,” senior BJP leader Bhalchandra Shirsat, who was the group leader of the party in the BMC from 2007-09, said.

“If in the next elections, the party that has the most seats now declines, they will be given a smaller office. These offices are being allotted to corporators for official purposes,” Shirsat said.

So how should the current situation be understood?

Political analyst and observer Surendra Jondhale said that besides being a point of contact for citizens, the offices also allow parties to keep an eye on the working of the BMC administration.

“From the party offices, elected corporators can keep a watch on the day-to-day activities of the BMC, and they can give their inputs to the process of decision-making as well. Also, when many common people come to meet their elected representatives, they create pressure on the officers as well, who are compelled to take suggestions and objections proposed by the leaders seriously, knowing that they have a mass following,” Jondhale said.

Heritage architect Abha Lamba, who had taken up the work of restoration of the BMC headquarters a few years ago, said that the offices of the political parties were earlier scattered across first and second floors of the building, and that the decision to move them to the ground floor was taken to make them more accessible to the public.

“During the restoration works we decided to get all these offices on the ground floor, since they would be more accessible to the people. This was not done for any political reason but to highlight the fact that all these party offices have been set up for the purpose of public service,” Lamba said.