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Battle of ballots: Civic bodies finalise reservation through lottery system
Hectic political activity ahead as polls take place for the first time after Cong, NCP, Sena joined hands
PUNE With the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) finalising reservation for women, scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) on Tuesday through a lottery system, political parties will soon get into action to finalise their candidates for the upcoming civic polls. This is also likely to trigger hectic political activity in the city as the municipal polls are taking place for the first time after the new political formation in the state in 2019 when Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress joined hands to wrest power from the BJP.
As decided by the state election commission (SEC), 87 seats have been reserved for women, 23 for SCs, and two for STs for the 173 members to be elected from 58 electoral panels to the general body of the PMC. Once the civic polls are held, this will be the first time that women’s representation in the PMC will be more.
The SEC had earlier issued notification to 12 civic bodies, including PMC and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), to hold a lottery for deciding the reservation of seats without including the other backward classes (OBCs) category.
“We conducted the lottery as per the SEC orders at the Ganesh Kala Krida auditorium, in which 87 seats were reserved for women. As per the population, a total 25 seats have been reserved for the SCs and STs. Since there is reservation for women too, 13 seats from the SC/ST quota will be for women,” said Yashwant Mane, deputy commissioner, election wing, PMC.
The lottery exercise was meant to finalise the reservation of seats for women, SCs and STs. With this exercise, it is clear that in 29 electoral panels, two of the three seats have been set aside for women. As 23 seats have been reserved for SCs and two for STs, 12 seats under the SC category and one under the ST category have been set aside for women, while the remaining 74 seats are for women willing to contest in the general category. On the other hand, men will be able to contest only 11 SC seats, one ST seat, and 74 general seats. Aspirants from various political parties will now set their eyes on seats that are convenient to them.
BJP city unit chief Jagdish Mulik said, “We are confident of retaining our dominance in the PMC as our work during the past five years has been appreciated by citizens of Pune. The reservation for women, SCs and STs for various seats will benefit us as we have strong candidates from these wards.”
The battle for the PMC will be crucial for all parties including the BJP, NCP, Congress, Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). The BJP controlled the PMC from 2017 to 2022 with 98 corporators. After coming to power in the state in 2019 by aligning with the Shiv Sena, the NCP is looking to regain control over PMC which has an annual budget of Rs6,700 crore.
“We are ready to contest polls anytime. We welcome the lottery exercise and clarify that it will help us finalise our candidates for the PMC polls,” said Prashant Jagtap, Nationalist Congress Party.
In March, the SEC had finalised the delimitation of wards with new boundaries, whereas electoral areas of each panel were finalised on May 12. The finalisation of reservation now offers a clear picture to all probable candidates, including sitting corporators, about their chances for contesting seats.
PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar said, “Suggestions and objections will be invited on the reservations finalised under lottery system between June 6 to 8. Action on those suggestions will be taken based on the directions from SEC.”
