Mumbai: As the state government’s Urban Development Department (UDD) prepares to draw lots on Thursday to determine the reservation for Mumbai’s mayoral post, political tensions have already begun to rise.
The prospect of the post being reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category has sparked intense speculation within political circles.
With both ST-reserved wards – ward 53 and ward 121 – having been won by candidates from the Uddhav Sena, an ST reservation would effectively hand the party a decisive edge. In ward 53, UBT’s Jitendra Walve defeated Shinde Sena’s Ashok Khandve and in ward 121, Priyadarshani Thackeray beat Shinde Sena’s Pratima Khopde. Out of the total strength of 227 members, the magic figure required to elect a mayor is 114.
While the BJP has emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, its alliance partner Shinde-led Shiv Sena holds 29 seats, giving the Mahayuti a comfortable majority of 118 members – well above the required threshold. On the other hand, the Shiv Sena (UBT) stands as the second-largest party in the BMC with 65 seats and leads a fragmented opposition comprising Congress, AIMIM, MNS, the Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions of the NCP, and the Samajwadi Party- together accounting for a total of 109 corporators.
The state UDD will announce mayoral reservations for 29 municipal corporations, including the BMC, via a lottery on January 22. The mayor won’t be decided by numbers but by the draw. If the BMC post is reserved for ST, the Mahayuti, with no ST corporators, loses its edge, while Uddhav Thackeray’s faction, which won both STreserved wards 53 and 121, gains a clear advantage. Similarly, a SC reservation would also favour Thackeray’s camp, Sena sources claim.
Meanwhile, civic sources said that BMC rules allow a ruling political party to select a corporator from an open category if a reserved-ward corporator does not get the mayoral post in the reservation lottery. “If the corporator has a valid caste certificate, they can be eligible for the mayor’s post despite reservation,” sources said. Municipal Secretary Manjiri Deshpande, however, declined to comment ahead of the lottery.
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