Mumbai: As citizen groups across the city prepare manifestos and citizens’ charters to be handed over to aspirants contesting the upcoming BMC elections 2026, several interesting demands have emerged.In the Chandivalicha Manifesto prepared by a local Chandivali Citizens Welfare Association (CCWA), the top demand is that the candidates take an anti-defacement pledge. The group, in a first of its kind move, has sought a written undertaking from contestants committing to not defacing the locality with illegal posters and banners. It has also demanded netas seeking votes promise to stop pasting their names and photographs on public amenities developed using taxpayers’ money. Their tagline is, ‘Paisa humara, naam tumhara nahi chalega.’ Mandeep Makkar, founder of the CCWA, said, “Public money must not be wasted on publicity or freebies. Our future corporators should focus on pothole-free roads, traffic solutions, pollution control, functional public gardens, schools and hospitals, and ensure that once tenders are awarded, projects are actually completed,” said Makkar.Their other demands include ethical usage of public funds so that they are utilised only for genuine public works.Other citizens’ collectives such as the Mumbai North Central District Forum (MNCDF) have called for elected municipal councillors to hold monthly citizen forum meetings, with the mandatory presence of ward officers. Unresolved complaints, they said, should be escalated along with citizens to the BMC commissioner’s monthly ‘sabhas’ at the civic headquarters. Trivankumar Karnani, a lawyer, who runs the X handle @MNCDFbombay said, “After eight years, Mumbai must elect corporators focused on civic welfare, not politics. Our 30-point Citizen Charter sets clear expectations for candidates and the next mayor,” he said, adding their charter is a non-partisan document and intended to guide candidates of all political parties towards citizen-first governance in Mumbai. The forum has around 200 volunteers across MMR.In Andheri, the Lokandwala Oshiwara Citizens Andheri (LOCA) in their manifesto have listed out demands like BMC funds allotted to the corporator should be spent after taking public view into account, repeated digging of roads must end and there must be a thorough crackdown on encroachment by hawkers. Dhaval Shah from LOCA said their Know Your Candidate series will go live on LOCA Instagram handle on Sunday, 1.15 pm. “Here we plan to share with the first candidate who will appear on this series our manifesto.”
