BMC mayoral race: Woman from general category to be chief of richest civic body

MUMBAI: The Mumbai mayor’s post was reserved for a woman from the General category in the lottery conducted by the state Urban Development Department on Thursday.

Out of 29 municipal Corporations, 1 for Scheduled Tribe (ST), 3 for Scheduled Caste (SC) (including 2 women SC), 8 for Other Backward Caste (OBC) (including 4 women), and 17 for General category (including 9 women).




The reservation lottery was announced in the presence of Minister of State (MoS) for Urban Development Madhuri Misal. BJP’s Rajesh Shirwadkar, Shiv Sena (UBT) Corporator Kishori Pednekar from the Thackeray group, MLA Manoj Jamsutkar, and NCP’s Anand Paranjape attended the lottery for the 29 Municipal Corporations.

Shiv Sena (UBT) Corporator Kishori Pednekar alleged that the lottery was conducted in violation of rules and claimed it was rigged.

Also read: Mumbai, Pune to get woman mayors: Reservation breakup for 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra — who gets which category (Full list)

The Mayor’s posts in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) have been reserved as follows: Mumbai – General Woman, Navi Mumbai – General Woman, Panvel – OBC, Thane – SC, Ulhasnagar – OBC General, Kalyan-Dombivali – ST, Vasai-Virar – General. With the implementation of 50% women’s reservation, 15 Municipal Corporations are reserved for women, and 14 Mayor positions will be in the General category.

“For BMC, the reservation has been in the General category for two consecutive terms. So far, there has never been a woman OBC reservation. There was General category reservation in 2017 and 2019, which was an injustice to OBCs. They introduced a new rule requiring at least three Scheduled Tribe (ST) corporators to avail ST reservation. This was done deliberately because only Shiv Sena (UBT) has two ST corporators in BMC. The rule was tweaked, making the lottery pre-decided and rigged. We condemn this,” Pednekar said.

Pednekar added that the new rule requiring at least three ST women corporators for ST women reservation was not communicated to any political parties. In the current House, only the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has elected corporators from ST-reserved wards. Ahead of the civic elections, two wards — Ward No. 53 and Ward No. 121 — were reserved for ST candidates. While all major parties fielded candidates, both seats were won by UBT.

From Ward 53, UBT candidate Jitendra Valvi defeated the Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Ashok Khandve. In Ward 121, Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Priyadarshini Thackeray emerged victorious, defeating Shinde faction candidate Pratima Khopde.

“If there was a rotation policy, then why was BMC excluded? The lottery was conducted keeping in mind the winning corporators of the ruling party. Despite our objections, the state government proceeded with the lottery. This is a grave injustice to OBCs. In the rotation, BMC should have been reserved for OBC women or ST women. Instead, it violated rules, as BJP doesn’t have any ST women corporators in BMC. ST corporators’ rights were denied,” Pednekar said.

In recent years, Mumbai has seen mayors from different reserved categories. Snehal Ambekar was elected Mayor from an SC-reserved seat in 2014, Vishwanath Mahadeshwar from an OBC-reserved seat in 2017, and outgoing Mayor Kishori Pednekar from an unreserved category.

29 Municipal Corporations – Reservation Breakdown

Total reserved: 16

ST: 1

SC: 3 (2 women)

OBC: 8 (4 women)

General: 17 (9 women)

Mayor Reservation Lottery

• Mumbai – General Woman
• Dhule – General Woman
• Nashik – General Woman
• Bhiwandi-Nizampur – General
• Parbhani – General
• Kalyan-Dombivali – ST
• Pune – General Woman
• Chandrapur – OBC
• Kolhapur – OBC General
• Jalgaon – OBC Woman
• Mira-Bhayander – General Woman
• Vasai-Virar – General
• Ahilyanagar – OBC Woman
• Pimpri-Chinchwad – General
• Akola – OBC Woman
• Amravati – General
• Jalna – SC Woman
• Latur – SC Woman
• Ch. Sambhajinagar – General
• Nanded-Waghala – General Woman
• Navi Mumbai – General Woman
• Panvel – OBC
• Thane – SC
• Ulhasnagar – OBC General
• Nagpur – General Woman
• Malegaon – General Woman
• Ichalkaranji – OBC General
• Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad – General
• Solapur – General