India, June 14 -- The long-stalled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, overdue since 2022, may finally see a breakthrough, with the court recently directing the State Election Commission (SEC) to issue a poll notification. If followed through, elections must be conducted within four months-potentially in the first or second week of October, once the monsoon subsides. Yet the question remains: why has the city-India's financial capital-been denied elected civic governance for nearly half a decade?

At the heart of this delay lies a dense web of legal hurdles, administrative reshuffling, and blatant political maneuvering. Since 2017, the city has been governed by unelected administrators-a model that runs contrary to democra...