The Maharashtra government on Thursday announced reservations for the posts of mayors in 29 municipal corporations, following the category-wise rotation system prescribed in the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations (Reservation of Posts of Mayors) Rules, 2006. The announcement sparked controversy after leaders of the opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) opposed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation being placed in the General category for the third consecutive term.
Alok Deshpande explains how the lottery was conducted and why some corporations saw their reservation categories repeated.
The system of reservation for the post of mayor arises from the 74th Constitutional Amendment, which granted constitutional status to urban local bodies and mandated reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and women in leadership positions. In Maharashtra, this is implemented through the Municipal Corporations Act, which extends reservation to OBCs as well.
To ensure equity, the law requires that the mayor’s position rotate between these categories during successive terms. According to senior officials of the Urban Development Directorate (UDD), the rotation cycle of reservations is calculated from 2007 and previous allocations are taken into account to minimize repetition.
What is the hero of the drawing like?
The draw takes place at Mantralaya. This year, all 29 municipal corporations went to the elections together, which further complicated the lottery process. Tokens bearing the names of eligible corporations are placed on a circular drum and the names are drawn by category.
How is ST reservation decided?
ST reservation is based on the ST population in the corporation, as per 2011 census. Only corporations with at least three ST corporations are eligible. This automatically filters out corporations like BMC, which do not meet the requirement.
Nine corporations were eligible for the ST draw: Kalyan-Dombivli, Chandrapur, Jalgaon, Thane, Dhule, Nagpur, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Vasai-Virar. Four of them, Dhule, Nagpur, Nashik and Pimpri-Chinchwad, already had ST-reserved mayors in previous cycles and were excluded. Of the remaining five, Kalyan-Dombivli was selected for the ST reserve. Since there was only one seat reserved for ST, parallel reservation for women was not applicable.
How is SC reservation decided?
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The same population criteria and minimum requirement of three corporations apply to the SC reservation. Three corporations were eligible for SC reservation. Corporations that had SC-reserved mayors in previous cycles were excluded. From the remaining group, Thane, Jalna and Latur were selected through lottery.
As per the 50% women reservation rule, Jalna and Latur were reserved for SC (Women).
How is OBC reservation decided?
Since the 2011 census did not enumerate castes, the government applied the legal reservation of 27% for OBCs, which translates to eight mayoral posts out of 29.
Except for Jalna, Ichalkaranji and Panvel, all other corporations already had OBC mayors in previous cycles. Jalna was excluded as it was already reserved for SC (Women), while Ichalkaranji and Panvel, which had never had OBC reservation, were automatically allotted.
For the remaining six OBC seats, the list of corporations was arranged alphabetically in Marathi. The first six Akola, Ahilyanagar, Ulhasnagar, Kolhapur, Chandrapur and Jalgaon were allotted OBC reservation. A separate draw then determined which four of the eight OBC seats would be reserved for women.
How is the General category determined?
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After allocating ST, SC and OBC reservations, the remaining 17 mayoral posts automatically fall under the General category. Of them, nine are reserved for women through lottery, in accordance with the mandate of 50% reservation for women.
Why did some corporations like BMC see repeat bookings?
Some corporations, including BMC, were given the same category for electing mayors as in the previous cycle, sparking controversy. Opposition parties, especially Shiv Sena, alleged that the process was unfair.
The state government, however, claimed that it had followed all norms. A senior UDD official explained: “Once the names of the corporations to be allotted a reservation are drawn and announced, all remaining corporations automatically fall under the General category.”