Mumbai to have woman mayor from general category; Oppn claims lottery 'fixed'

Mumbai: Mumbai's next mayor will be a woman from the general category, as determined by a lottery held on Thursday, an official said, even as the Opposition alleged the procedure was "fixed" to suit the ruling parties. The Shiv Sena (UBT)'s hopes of securing the Mumbai mayoral post were dashed after the lottery draw, as it had pinned its chances on the possibility of the post being reserved for a Scheduled Tribe (ST) woman, as both eligible candidates in that category belonged to Uddhav Thackeray's party. In the January 15 elections, the BJP won 89 seats in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), while the Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde secured 29, taking the alliance past the halfway mark of 114 required to control India's largest and richest civic body.

The Shiv Sena (UBT), which ruled the civic body for 25 years since 1997 as an undivided political party, won 65 seats, while its allies, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), won 6 and 1 seat, respectively. As per the draw of lots, eight other civic bodies in Maharashtra --- Pune, Dhule, Nanded-Waghala, Navi Mumbai, Malegaon, Mira-Bhayander, Nagpur and Nashik --- will also have women mayors from the general category. The lottery determines the category for which the mayor's post will be reserved, such as general, women, SC, ST, and OBC categories. Once the category is announced, eligible candidates file their nominations. State Urban Development Department, headed by Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, conducted the lottery for the mayoral posts in Mumbai and 28 other civic bodies, where the elections were held on January 15. The draw for Mumbai dashed hopes of Shiv Sena (UBT), as after the civic election results last week, former state chief minister and Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray said that "if God is willing", the city will have a mayor from his party. The Sena (UBT) hoped that luck would have fared if the draw determined a ST woman for the top post in the BMC. There are only two ST category women candidates, both from Thackeray's party.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar opposed the lottery procedure, claiming that the rules to arrive at the decision were changed without informing anyone. She said the last two city mayors were from the general category, so the new mayor should have been from the Other Backward Classes (OBC). Pednekar also alleged that the ST category was excluded from the lottery system. "We condemn the way the procedure (of lottery) was conducted. The procedure was fixed," Pednekar charged. Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar also alleged the lottery system was "fixed" and done in an opaque manner. However, Minister of State for Urban Development, Madhuri Misal, rejected the charge. "We completed the procedure as per the law," she asserted. As per the lottery, eight other civic bodies will have mayors from general category (which could also include women). These are Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Parbhani, Sangli-Mira-Kupwad, Amravati, Vasai-Virar, Solapur, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Bhiwandi-Nizampur.bThane will have a mayor from the Scheduled Caste category, while Jalgaon, Chandrapur, Ahilyanagar and Akola municipal corporations will have women mayors from the OBC category, an official said. Panvel, Ichalkaranji, Kolhapur and Ulhasnagar will have an OBC mayor, while Kalyan-Dombivli civic body will have a mayor from the Scheduled Tribe category. Jalna and Latur will have women mayors from the Scheduled Caste category.