Mumbai to have woman mayor from gen category; Oppn claims lottery ‘fixed’

Mumbai: Mumbai will have a woman mayor from the general category after a lottery draw held on Thursday, an official said, even as the Opposition alleged the process was “fixed” to favour the ruling parties.

The draw dealt a setback to the Shiv Sena (UBT), which had hoped the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) mayor’s post would be reserved for a Scheduled Tribe (ST) woman. The party’s calculation hinged on the fact that there are only two ST women candidates eligible for the top post, and both belong to Uddhav Thackeray’s party.

After the civic election results last week, Sena (UBT) chief and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had said that “if God is willing”, Mumbai would get a mayor from his party. Those expectations were blunted once the reservation category was announced through the draw of lots.

In the January 15 elections, the BJP won 89 seats in the BMC, while the Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde secured 29, taking the alliance past the halfway mark of 114 needed to control India’s largest and richest civic body. The Sena (UBT), which ran the civic body for 25 years since 1997 when it was an undivided party, won 65 seats, while allies Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) won 6 and 1 seats, respectively.

The State Urban Development Department, headed by Deputy CM Shinde, conducted the lottery for Mumbai and 28 other civic bodies where elections were held on January 15. The lottery decides whether the mayor’s post will be reserved for categories such as general, women, SC, ST and OBC, after which eligible candidates file nominations.

Former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar objected to the method, alleging rules were changed without notice and claiming the ST category was excluded. “We condemn the way the procedure (of lottery) was conducted. The procedure was fixed,” she said. Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar also called it opaque. Minister of State for Urban Development Madhuri Misal rejected the charges, saying, “We completed the procedure as per the law.”

As per the draw, Pune, Dhule, Nanded-Waghala, Navi Mumbai, Malegaon, Mira-Bhayander, Nagpur, Nashik and Mumbai will have women mayors from the general category. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Parbhani, Sangli-Mira-Kupwad, Amravati, Vasai-Virar, Solapur, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Bhiwandi-Nizampur will have general-category mayors. Thane will have an SC mayor. Jalgaon, Chandrapur, Ahilyanagar and Akola will have OBC women mayors. Panvel, Ichalkaranji, Kolhapur and Ulhasnagar will have OBC mayors, while Kalyan-Dombivli will have an ST mayor. Jalna and Latur will have SC women mayors.