Corporators feel the burn

Vishwanath Mahadeshwar

The lottery on Tuesday for reservation of wards for women for the upcoming BMC polls dealt a major blow to some of the sitting corporators, from all political parties. Many party leaders lost their strongholds to reservation. Shiv Sena's Vishwanath Mahadeshwar's seat went into the women's quota kitty. His wife Pooja, a former corporator, can claim to contest the election this year. "Although, the party will make the final decision," he said.

A few corporators turned lucky, with some of their seats remaining open. The State Election Commission and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) declared reservation for women on 118 of the 236 electoral seats. In the general category, 109 wards were reserved for women and 110 were open for all categories. Fifteen wards were reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC), including eight for women. Two wards are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, including one for women candidates.

Two former mayors of Shiv Sena - Vishwanath Mahadeshwar and Milind Vaiya - lost their wards to women reservation. Seats of BJP's former BMC group leader Prabhakar Shinde and corporator Vinod Mishra, as well as former Opposition leader Ravi Raja (of Congress) were also blocked for women.

Shiv Sena suffered a major blow in Bandra East, as only one of the six wards is now open. Wards 96 (of Mahadeshwar), 90 (former Improvement Committee chairman Sadanand Parab), 98 (Corporator Chandrashekhar Waingankar), 99 (Haji Alim Khan) and 95 are reserved for women, while only ward number 97 is open.

Kaptan Malik and Rakhee Jadhav

Mahadeshwar's wife Pooja Mahadeshwar is a former corporator, and can claim to contest the election this year. "Though, ultimately, the party will decide the candidates," said Vishwanath.

Among other seats that have been reserved for women are ward number 188 in Mahim, of former mayor from Shiv Sena Milind Vaidya, and ward number 217 of former standing committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav.

Lost seats of BJP netas

After delimitation, 70 per cent of Prabhakar Shinde's ward in Mulund became part of ward number 108 and it is now reserved for women candidates. "But 30 per cent of the area is in ward number 109, which is for the general category. I won from the area earlier, so after the party's decision, I can contest it," said Shinde.

But not everyone has the same luck. BJP's Vinod Mishra, who lost his ward in Malad to reservation for women, said, "My ward number 44 is now reserved for women. I have put a lot of energy into various works, like converting all roads into cement concrete and making a reservation for a hospital and dialysis centre, in the ward. It is extremely disappointing."

The adjacent ward, number 38, is for the general category, but there is a sitting corporator of the BJP and it is not wise to upset the local aspirants.

The few lucky ones

There are a few lucky candidates. In Ghatkopar, four wards are in the general category and two are reserved for women. BJP spokesperson Bhalchandra Shirsat and corporator Pravin Chheda, who were not part of the elected representatives from 2017 to 2022, are eager to contest from two of the four seats. They told mid-day that the party's decision will be binding on them. But both have a hard job to win over their party colleagues.

Santosh Kelkar of the BJP, who lost to Congress candidate Jagdish Amin by merely 48 votes in 2017, will now get a chance to contest from ward number 84, open for general category candidates.

Former BEST committee chairman Ashish Chemburkar feels lucky, too. "My old ward was divided into two, and now ward number 200 is in the general category. The party will take the decision," the Shiv Sena leader.

Congress's Pramod Mandrekar represented Walkeshwar in Malabar Hill in 2007, however, he did not get another chance to contest in the 2012 and 2017 elections due to reservations. "This time, ward number 229 is in the general category. The party will take the decision, but at least now I can claim candidacy," he said.

Status of NCP wards

While wards of two of the NCP's bigwigs Rakhee Jadhav and Kaptan Malik are secure, the reservation of seats belonging to four other corporators have changed. Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) former group leader Rakhee Jadhav will contest from Ghatkopar. "Two wards are for women and I can contest from the general ward as well. But ward number 194 of Reshma Kant--NCP corporator from Dharavi--is now reserved for women of Scheduled Castes. The status of wards of Jyoti Khan from Ghatkopar, Saida Khan from Kurla, and Dhanashree Bharadkar from Didoshi have now changed to general category."

Some of the sitting corporators are of the opinion that earlier there were less options to contest due to reservations. "Now, as most of the wards are in the general category, political parties have the option to choose better candidates," said a two-time corporator.

However, BJP's Shirsat, who contested from Other Backward Classes (OBC) seat in 2017, said, "It is an unfortunate situation, as OBC candidates now have to contest against the bigwigs from the general category. The contest will be unequal, even though the BJP will give 27 per cent reservation to the OBCs in choosing candidates."

This was the first-time since 1977 that ward reservation draw was announced without OBC quota, as the Supreme Court abolished OBC reservations for local self-government polls.

Cong to challenge reservations

"The Congress party will challenge the ward reservation in court," said Ravi Raja. "Most of our senior corporators' wards are reserved now. Our wards were deliberately reserved as we object to the arbitrary conduct of the civic commissioner," he claimed. Raja wanted to contest the election from ward number 174 in Wadala, but it's now reserved for women candidates.

Old guards of MNS

MNS leaders Sandip Deshpande and Santosh Dhuri, won the 2012 election but couldn't contest the 2017 election owing to the reservation, can claim candidacy this year. Ward numbers 197 and 198 in Dadar Wast are now in the open category. "But the final decision will be of the party," said Deshpande.

Dhuri wishes to contest from ward number 200 in Worli. MNS's only former corporator Sanjay Turde lost his ward number 166 in Kurla West, which has gone into the women quota kitty.

With inputs from Prajakta Kasale

118
No. of electoral seats reserved for women

236
Total no. of electoral seats under BMC

110
No. of seats open for all categories

15
No. of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes