From two former mayors to the latest opposition leader, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC’s) ongoing lottery for the upcoming civic elections has seen heavyweight candidates lose their seats due to reservation. The first half of the lottery concluded at approximately 12:45 pm, while the second half is still ongoing.
These big names include Shiv Sena’s (UBT) Milind Vaidya (182-Dadar) and Vishwanath Mahadeshwar (87-Bandra East), whose seats were reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates on Tuesday. Both Vaidya and Mahadeshwar served as mayors of Mumbai between 1996-97 and 2017-19. In May 2023, Mahadeshwar died after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Former Congress MP Ravi Raja, who was the Leader of Opposition in the BMC between 2017-2022, also lost his seat (176-Sion) as it was reserved for OBC candidates. Raja joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena in October last year.
Three-time Congress member Asif Zakaria from Bandra (West) also lost his seat (Bandra 101) after it was reserved for a woman candidate.
Shiv Sena’s Sandhya Doshi – who served as BMC Education Committee chairperson between 2017-2022, also lost her seat (Borivali-18) after it was reserved for an OBC candidate. Doshi was the first among the former corporators to join the Shiv Sena’s Shinde faction of the Sena (UBT) after the vertical split in the party.
Former BJP MP Neil Somaiya (1-Mulund), son of former BJP MP and senior BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, and former BJP MP Tejasvi Ghosalkar, wife of former Sena MP Abhishek Ghosalkar (1-Mulund), were among those who lost their seats in the OBC quota on Tuesday. In July last year, Abhishek was shot dead in his office by his political rival Maurice Noronha.
Former BJP MP Harshita Narwekar, sister-in-law of state Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, also lost her Cuffe Parade (226) seat to OBC reservation.
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Lottery system
After a hiatus of 44 months, the BMC is gearing up for the much-awaited civic elections which are likely to be held in January 2027. As a first step, the civic body is conducting a lottery to reserve 227 wards whose boundaries were recently realigned after the delimitation drive.
About 27 per cent or 61 of the total seats will be reserved for OBC candidates, about 15 for Scheduled Castes candidates, and two for Scheduled Tribes candidates. These seats are divided equally between male and female candidates from each of these categories.
Lottery is a major deciding factor for political parties in allocating seats to candidates, as it determines the number of constituencies to be reserved for women candidates or candidates from backward communities.
(tags for translation) BMC Polls
