All in the family

the policy to reserve 33 per cent seats in the local self government bodies for women was aimed at empowering women. but this time round, it seems, women are only too happy not to be empowered and to yield their seats docilely to their menfolk, making something of a mockery of the reservation system. when the seats are reserved the women are pushed in by the other halves, when the reservation is lifted vback come the men.thus, two sitting women corporators of the bjp, sunita chintal and shashikala mengde, will be bowing out in the february polls as their husbands, gopal chintal and shivram mengde, have bagged the party tickets. in the shiv sena, three sitting women corporators, mandakini khule, sangeeta deshpande and mandakini amrale have opted out of the race when the party gave their tickets to their spouses sopan khule, sham deshpande and chandrakant amrale. the congress's two sitting women corporators, bhavna kedari and vidya bhokre, have have given way to their husbands and former corporators shivaji kedari and jayant bhokre. sometimes, it happens the other way around. so, sitting bjp corporator uday joshi and sena corporator janu akhade opted out of the race since their wards are reserved for women but they managed to secure tickets for their respective wives subhada joshi and sangeeta akhade. two better than one while having one partner enjoying the fruits of corporatorship is shrewd tactics, having both in the corridors of power is a cause of real coup. the lucky couples are sitting corporartors ulhas dhole patil (ncp) and sadanand shetty (congress), who have not only managed to secure party tickets for themselves, but also for their better halves. if they win, the next civic body will have two couples sitting in the house - the civic house, that is: sujata and sadanand shetty and kamal and ulhas dhole patil. some bonding that; together at home, together at work popular mc with the code of conduct restraining the mayor and the elected office-bearers from occupying their favourite seats - that of chief guest at public functions - municipal commissioner t c benjamin finds himself in great demand. the commissioner, who is currently busy preparing the civic budget, finds that time is really of the essence. he cannot turn down all the invites as some are launches of the pmc's budgeted projects, such as the new sewage treatment plants he launched on january 4, before the code was in force. on friday he was invited to lay the foundation stone for setting up the stage for the akhil bhartiya marathi sahitya sammelan, the all-india marathi literary meet. on saturday, he was busy launching the rs 50 lakh water pipeline from the balbharti office to vetalbabab chowk, senapati bapat road. anything for a seat after holding the key post in an organisation, one does not apply for a lower post in the same organisation, right? right, if we're talking about the private sector, but in politics, things are - as always - different. hence, as many as seven former mayors of pune, including the outgoing one, datta gaikwad, have thrown their hats in the ring for the upcoming corporatorships. besides gaikwad, all three former women mayors, kamal vyavahare, vandana chavan and vatsala andekar, all congresswomen, are eager to become corporators. three former mayors including ankush kakde, ulhas dhole-patil and datta ekbote, all from the ncp, are also keen to step into the new civic body. strange bedfellows vandana chavan's decision to contest the civic elections has surprised many. only three months ago she had quit from the corporatorship because her party leaders had not agreed to investigate the clandestine dezoning of the parvati hill-top hill- slope zone. in fact during the selection of party candidates, she had insisted tickets not be given to anyone with a criminal history. as happens in the bizarre world of politics, the congress has fielded shankar pawar, a history-sheeter, from ward number c in the dattawadi panel. chavan has been given a ticket from ward a of the same panel, and will thus now be campaigning along with pawar. what's in a name? the bjp and shiv sena have paid a heavy price for nominating candidates with the same surnames from the same panel. the sena had fielded vijay pardeshi from ward b of panel number 42 while the bjp was to field ganesh pardeshi from ward a of the same panel. the bjp and sena had hoped that the two pardeshis would be able to help each other and the saffron alliance would win in both wards. owing to some confusion, however, both pardeshis filed nominations from ward b, in effect pitting themselves against each other. the bjp and sena is now debating which pardeshi should be asked to opt out of the race to save the division in the traditional hindu vote bank. the one who is smiling like he swallowed the cream is ajit darekar, sitting congress corporator and congress candidate from ward a. thanks to the goof-up in the opposition camp, there is no bjp-sena candidate against him. and with a weak candidate like manni khan of the nc, darekar could even make inroads into the bjp-sena's traditional vote bank.