Ward delimitation likely to help Sena increase BMC seat tally

It may have been reduced to being the BJP’s junior partner at the state level. But the stars seem to have aligned for the Shiv Sena ahead of the polls to the country’s richest municipal corporation. It has emerged as the only party with a clear advantage from the recent delimitation exercise in Mumbai.

A ward-wise analysis of all sitting corporators vis-à-vis the new ward constitution after delimitation shows that while four administrative wards that are the party’s mainstay areas have been unaffected, four more administrative wards with a majority Sena presence will see an increase in electoral seats. This is likely to help position the party, which currently has 75 corporators in the BMC, to improve its numbers.

In some of the northern suburbs where the Sena has a majority, electoral seats are set to increase from 44 to 51. These include four administrative wards of R North (Dahisar), P North (Malad), P South (Goregaon) and L ward (Kurla). The party’s other bastions comprising K East (Jogeshwari, Andheri), F North (Sion, Matunga), F South (Parel), and G North (Dadar, Mahim) have been unaffected by delimitation.

A 39-year-old perfumer was found dead at her Goa residence on Thursday. Monika Ghurde’s naked body was found with her hands and legs tied to a bed at her house at Sangolda in North Goa, the police said.

While investigations are underway, the police suspect Ghurde may have been robbed and then sexually assaulted or raped and killed the previous night, while she was alone in her first-floor flat in residential complex Sapna Raj Valley.

The police said there were visible marks on her neck and they suspect Ghurde was strangled.

Ghurde had been living alone for a year in the three-bedroom house, while her husband lived nearby, sources said.

“She was estranged from her husband and living alone. She was originally from Nagpur, while her husband is from Chennai,” police inspector Rajesh Kumar said.