Mumbai to get open category woman mayor, even as Uddhav Sena, Congress cry foul

Mumbai’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will get a woman mayor along with 16 other municipal corporations, as per the result of the reservation lottery conducted here on Thursday under the supervision of Minister of State for Urban Development Madhuri Misal.

The mayor’s post in 17 municipalities, including important municipalities like Mumbai (BMC), Navi Mumbai, Pune, and Pimpri-Chinchwad, has been reserved for open category women, which was opposed by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena as well as the Congress.

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Both the opposition parties objected to the mayoral reservation in Mumbai and Parbhani, alleging that OBC and Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories never received a reservation in the BMC in the last 25 years.

Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena group leader Kishori Pednekar raised the question of why Mumbai was excluded from the method adopted for other municipalities and objected to the reservation.

The Uddhav Sena objected to the reservation lottery and alleged that the reservation lottery has also done injustice to the OBCs in Mumbai, besides being unfair to nomadic tribes and the Scheduled Castes. The Uddhav Sena alleged that the reservation lottery was deliberately “fixed” so that the ruling elites would remain in power and staged a walkout.

Former Mumbai mayor and Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena leader Kishori Pednekar pointed out that in 2017 and 2019, the mayoral post in Mumbai was reserved under the open category. “As per the rotational system, the post should have been included in the OBC draw this time. The government has insulted OBCs by deliberately denying them this opportunity,” Pednekar said.

Pednekar also accused the government of introducing a new rule to prevent a Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidate from becoming mayor. “The rule requires a corporation to have at least three ST corporators to be eligible for ST reservation. When was this rule introduced? It was done only to benefit the ruling side,” Pednekar alleged.

Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar also made a serious allegation that the mayoral reservation in Nagpur was drawn at the convenience of the BJP. While interacting with media persons in Nagpur, Vijay Vadettiwar said, “Today, the lottery for reservation for 29 municipal corporations in the state was held, but this was fixed. The reservation process was not carried out in a transparent manner. BJP corporators were elected, and a reservation was made due to that convenience. BJP had selected Shivani Dani as the candidate for the post of mayor in Nagpur. Accordingly, a reservation for the post of mayor was made in Nagpur, and an open women’s category was introduced”.

However, Minister of State Madhuri Misal rejected all objections of Uddhav Sena’s group leader, Kishori Pednekar and the Congress. Rejecting the allegations, Misal said the objections raised by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena are not in accordance with the rules. “They want reservations as per their demand, which cannot be done,” Misal said.

Talking to media persons later on Thursday, Mumbai BJP President Amit Satam said, “I think those who objected to the reservation lottery process have not studied the rules. Here, in the rule number 3 (1)/3/1 of the Urban Development Department, it is clearly written that ST reservation can be applied to the mayor’s post only if at least three corporators in the BMC are from the ST category. Since there are less than three, that is, only two ST reserved corporators in the BMC, as per the rules of the Urban Development Department, ST reservation cannot be applied to the post of Mumbai Mayor. Those who have raised objections are requested to study the rules carefully”.

“Also, while making reservations for SC, municipalities that never received SC reservations in the last several elections have been selected. The SC reservation was applicable to Mumbai earlier. Therefore, Mumbai was excluded from it this time. As far as OBCs are concerned, after preparing the list of municipal corporations in alphabetical order, the first municipal corporation in it came under OBC reservation. Mumbai was at number 17. Therefore, there is time for Mumbai’s number to come under the OBC reservation. Perhaps, it can be implemented in the next two and a half years, and therefore, I request the opposition and objectors to study all these rules, all the acts, all the regulations, and the entire process,” Mumbai BJP President Amit Satam said.