'Very wrong...same is happening in Bengaluru': Mohandas Pai on BMC allocating 99% funds to ruling wards

Former Infosys Chief Financial Officer Mohandas Pai on Tuesday criticised the Maharashtra government over what he described as a deeply unfair allocation of civic development funds in Mumbai, saying similar patterns of political bias were visible in Bengaluru as well.

Reacting to a report by The Indian Express on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) spending, Pai said on X, "Very wrong of @Dev_Fadnavis govt to do this. All citizens and wards should have equal access to public funds for development. Such arbitrary one-sided allocation by any party is very very wrong. We see the same happening to a lesser degree in Bengaluru. @DKShivakumar."

Pai's remarks followed an investigation by The Indian Express, which reported that over the past three years, more than 99 per cent of development funds sanctioned by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation were allotted to wards represented by legislators from the ruling Mahayuti alliance.

According to official records cited in the report, between February 2023 and October 2025, the BMC sanctioned Rs 1,490.66 crore for civic works, including road repairs, drainage upgrades, health facilities and neighbourhood beautification.

Of this amount, Rs 1,476.92 crore went to constituencies represented by MLAs, MLCs and MPs belonging to the ruling alliance comprising the BJP, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

BJP legislators received the largest share of these funds, amounting to Rs 1,076.7 crore, followed by Rs 372.7 crore allocated to constituencies represented by Shinde's Shiv Sena.

In contrast, the Opposition received just Rs 13.74 crore, or 0.9 per cent of the total sanctioned funds during the same period. The report noted that this limited allocation went entirely to a single Congress MLA, Amin Patel, who represents the Mumbadevi constituency in South Mumbai, an area with a sizeable minority population.

The remaining Opposition legislators - including ten MLAs from the Shiv Sena (UBT), two from the Congress and one from the Samajwadi Party - received no development funds at all during the period under review.

The report said this imbalance continued a trend first highlighted in January 2024, when RTI data revealed that the entire Rs 500 crore disbursed in the initial phase of a temporary policy had gone exclusively to ruling-party MLAs.