Through July, a single clogged drain ran through the lives of the chawls around Govandi’s Raman Mama Nagar. Every downpour sent it over, and the muck it pushed back into homes turned the narrow gully into a gutter. When the residents took their complaint to the BMC’s M/East ward office, they were sent looking for someone who no longer existed on paper.“When we went, the BMC official said that the corporator could use their development funds to clean the drain and resolve our problem,” said Reshma Singh, who lives in one of the chawls with her family of five. The corporator in question, ward 137’s Shamir Ramzan Patel, had been disqualified weeks earlier over an allegedly invalid caste certificate. With the seat empty and no development fund to tap, the residents eventually pooled money from their own pockets and had the drain cleared on July 31.That small act, citizens paying to do a corporator’s job, is the clearest picture of what has quietly happened to a stretch of Mumbai this monsoon.Barely eight months after the city finally elected a civic house, following a gap of nearly four years under an administrator, five BMC wards are already without a corporator. A sixth is about to join them. In almost every case the reason is the same. A caste certificate submitted at nomination has been ruled invalid, and the elected representative removed. One of the five is different, a death rather than a disqualification. But the pattern across Govandi, Bhandup and Kurla holds at the cruelest moment, peak monsoon, when residents lean on their corporator the most.Also Read | 8,000 pothole complaints in two months despite Mumbai’s Rs 17,000-crore road makeoverChallenged by rivalIn case after case, the person who challenged the winner’s caste certificate is the rival that the winner had beaten at the polls. Flagging an invalid certificate is well within their rights, and under the civic body’s rules there is a direct consequence to it, when a corporator is disqualified, the candidate who finished second in that ward is declared the new incumbent. The challenger stands to move into the seat.The first to fall was Deepak Sawant, the Shiv Sena (UBT) corporator from ward 111 in Bhandup, disqualified on June 18 after the Ratnagiri caste scrutiny committee invalidated the OBC certificate he had filed with his January nomination. The objection had come from BJP’s Sarika Pawar, who had finished second to him in ward 111. Four days later, on June 22, AIMIM’s Shamir Ramzan Patel lost ward 137 after a committee in Ahilyanagar ruled his ‘Julaha’ OBC certificate invalid. The challenge there came from his poll opponent, Ayesha Rafiq Shaikh of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.On July 10, Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde announced two more. AIMIM’s Roshan Shaikh from ward 138 and NCP’s Bushra Nadeem Malik from ward 170 in Kurla were both struck off after their OBC certificates were invalidated. According to civic officials, both seats had been reserved for women candidates from OBC communities.Story continues below this adBMC sources say none of this is new. “As soon as the election concludes, opponents start flagging their complaints and based on their allegations, the caste scrutiny committee starts making its inquiry. Depending on their findings, they declare whether the elected corporator is disqualified or not,” one source said. The machinery is routine. What is not routine is the seniority of the name now caught in it.On Friday, the caste scrutiny committee in Palghar invalidated the OBC certificate of Vishakha Raut, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former mayor who holds ward 191, ruling it had been wrongly issued for the jurisdiction. Raut has defended the certificate, saying her grandfather hailed from Palghar, and has alleged that the committee acted under pressure from the ruling alliance. The objection against her, she says, was raised by the Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Priya Sarvankar, daughter of former MLA Sada Sarvankar, who lost the ward to Raut by 167 votes. Raut is the first corporator of her standing, a former first citizen of the city, to face disqualification through this route.Also Read | Rs 335 crore for two sugar mills run by Mahayuti leaders, weeks after Rs 18 crore rowNo automatic handover to runner-upFor residents, though, the more immediate question is not who gains the seat but why no one has filled it. All four disqualified corporators have challenged their orders and secured stays, either from the High Court or the relevant appellate authority, which has frozen the automatic handover to the runner-up. Under Section 18 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, a disqualified councillor, or any other councillor, may take the question to the Chief Judge of the Small Cause Court, whose finding on the disqualification, the Act says, “shall be conclusive.” Until that finding comes, the seat stays empty.Mumbai’s 227 wards each hold roughly 50,000 to 60,000 residents, and in its poorer, denser pockets the corporator is often the only representative a resident can actually reach. Wards 137 and 138, hard against the Deonar dumping ground, are among the most deprived in the city, and their daily grievances, water, sanitation, roads, choked drains, now have nowhere to land.Story continues below this adArbaz Saqidi, an activist and resident of ward 137, has watched a promised speedbreaker and a stretch of potholes at Baiganwadi’s rickshaw junction sit untouched. “The ward level BMC officials tell us to approach the corporator, who is not available. A corporator has experience and they are also the ones whom the BMC administration listens to,” he said.Zameer Qureshi, the AIMIM corporator from neighbouring ward 136, frames the vacancy as a betrayal of the vote. “While everyone knows their corporator, people are typically unaware about their ward officer, assistant engineers or sub-engineers handling administrative departments. They do not know whom to approach and in which department when they are facing problems in their locality,” he told The Indian Express. “People exercised their right to vote. If their corporator is disqualified, this is not the voters’ fault. Yet, they are the ones who end up suffering.”“The allocation of development funds is stuck. The vacant 137 and 138 wards have major problems pertaining to water supply but people get no update from councillors, who are missing,” said Faiyaz Alam Shaikh, a resident and activist, who points out that with both M/East corporators gone, even the ward’s Prabhag Samiti has been hobbled.The disqualified corporators, meanwhile, occupy an odd limbo. Off the rolls but not out of the neighbourhood, they say residents still walk up to them. “One of the biggest crises of this ward is poor drainage and inadequate sanitation. When we came to power, we immediately got to work and started desilting legacy garbage from drains and did a lot of work in replacing old pipes. People were really appreciating our work but then my certificate was challenged and invalidated. Owing to my opponent challenging my caste certificate, I am unable to execute these essential duties,” said Patel. “Significant work on drainage and school improvement has taken a hit. Even the contractor, who worked in accordance with the corporator, is directly awarded work, increasing chances of corruption,” he added, saying he still meets constituents in office hours and recently walked them through the SIR process.Story continues below this adFrom Kurla, Malik said much the same. “We are well known faces within the area and thus, people continue to approach us with their local problems. Meanwhile, we have taken a stay on the disqualification order and have also approached the small case court in the matter,” she said.“The administration, which plans and executes development work, takes corporators into confidence. On the basis of the corporators’ suggestions, the BMC administration priorities and plans projects. The shoes of the local corporator cannot be filled by anyone else. Even for people, their corporator is a one-window system who can assist them with any problem,” said Ashraf Azmi, the Congress leader from ward 165 in Kurla.Behind the stranded drains lies a quieter recalibration of power. Every vacancy trims the opposition and pads the ruling Mahayuti. If the disqualifications are upheld, AIMIM’s strength in the house could drop from eight to six, while the NCP and Shiv Sena (UBT) each lose one. Raut’s exit would cost the Sena UBT, the single largest opposition bloc in the corporation. Should her order stand, her removal will be read out at the next civic session once the scrutiny committee reports to the BMC commissioner and the election department issues its order.For now, the four disputed wards wait on the courts. “Depending on the court’s rulings, an election will be conducted to elect corporators in place of the members who are declared disqualified or the next trailing candidate will be appointed the corporator by default,” said BJP’s Ganesh Khankar, the leader of the house, adding that Kerkar’s Khar West seat would be filled at the bypolls. If all four disqualifications hold, the Mahayuti’s tally could climb from 117 to around 121.Story continues below this adNone of that arithmetic reaches Raman Mama Nagar, where the drain the residents cleared themselves will have to hold through the rest of the monsoon. They voted, waited four years to be able to, and are now paying out of pocket for the civic attention that vote was supposed to buy. Somewhere in a courtroom, the people who challenged their corporators wait to take the seats. The gully, in the meantime, drains on its own schedule.