ABSTRACT

After having introduced the formal institutional governance context of the BMC and related agencies in which the 227 Mumbai corporators operate in Chapter 2 , I will now look in detail at their actual functioning and performance. What kind of people are they, what are they assumed to do and what do they actually do – both in a formal sense and, apparently more critically, in a variety of informal if not illegal activities? How does all this relate to the wishes and needs of their various political parties and other local governance actors and to the private sector which may fi nance some of their election campaigns? Last but not least, how do they deal with the wishes and needs of the many urban poor, both the people most in need but also the most enthusiastic voters?