Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 22: The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Thursday raised strong objections to the process of drawing lots for reservation exercise in Maharashtra to determine the category of mayors of civic bodies in the state claiming that the system was deliberately rigged to benefit the ruling “Mahayuti.”
The former Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) mayor Kishori Pednekar, who belonged to Sena (UBT), alleged that the government at the last moment changed the rules for drawing lots in favour of the Mahayuti. “The government changed the rules of reservation for the ST category. The requirement of a minimum number of members from the category was altered at the last minute,” she said.
Accordingly, the BMC was not put in the list of ST category deliberately as only the Sena-UBT has two councillors from the category in the city and the Mahayuti has none. If the BMC figured in ST category, a candidate from the Sena (UBT) would have to be elected the mayor.
Responding to the allegations of fraud, Madhuri Misal, minister of state for the Urban Development Department, who chaired the draw process, said the government had taken note of the objections but dismissed Sena (UBT)’s claims, stating that they lacked substance. The party wanted the reservation convenient to them, Misal said, adding that process as per the rules was followed.
The law stipulates that the mayor’s post must be reserved by rotation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Women candidates. It is only after this lottery is conducted that the statutory procedure for the mayoral election can begin.
Amid suspense over who’ll be mayor of Mumbai and other major cities in Maharashtra, the draw process for the top posts in the 29 municipal corporations was held on Thursday at the state secretariat. As per the rotational system, Mumbai will get an open-category woman mayor, while Thane and Bhiwandi- Nizampur are expected to have mayor from the SC category.
According to the draw, mayoral posts in Ichalkaranji, Ahilyanagar, Kolhapur, Chandrapur, Jalgaon, Akola, Panvel and Ulhasnagar have been reserved for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. Of these, Chandrapur, Ichalkaranji, Akola and Jalgaon will have women mayors from the OBC category.
In total, 17 municipal corporations will have mayors from the open category, of which nine posts are reserved for women. Major civic bodies falling under the open category include Mumbai, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad (PCMC) and Nagpur.
Apart from Mumbai, PCMC (Pimpri Chinchwad), Pune, Bhiwandi and Dhule will have women mayors from the open category. Navi Mumbai, Malegaon, Nanded and Mira Bhayandar will also have women mayors from the open category.
Following the reservation announcement, a special meeting of the BMC house is convened to notify members of the mayoral election schedule. Typically, a seven-day window is provided after the notification, placing the mayoral election this time around January 28 or 29.
Meanwhile, the Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was formerly with the Congress before he joined the BJP a few years back, has ripped into the Gandhi family alleging a rift between senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and his sister and the AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Mr Sarma dubbed himself a “victim” of a rift between the Gandhi siblings.
Vadra, a Congress MP from Kerala’s Wayanad, now heads an election committee in Assam. The only possible interpretation behind such an assignment is that Rahul Gandhi doesn’t want her to interfere in the party’s Kerala affairs, Sarma claimed.
“Rahul doesn’t want Priyanka in Kerala. I was in Congress for 22 years. I also have some inner information. He doesn’t want to disturb KC Venugopal and his axis, and Priyanka is an outsider to that axis. That’s why he transferred her to Assam. An MP from Kerala has not been assigned responsibility in Kerala. How else do you interpret this?” said the chief minister. He has also slammed the Gandhis as the “world’s biggest flop family.” “I think my family is better than theirs. We grew up struggling,” he added.
Sarma also denied any personal rivalry with Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi, and said it was his responsibility to flag developments regarding an “enemy country” to the central government. He had earlier accused Gogoi and his wife of having links with the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. Doubling down on his charges, he said he wouldn’t have pursued the case himself if the issue were related to a less serious matter.
“But when the link is to an enemy country, and I do not forward it to the Government of India, then as a chief minister, I will be doing a disservice to the Constitution and people. Pakistan is an enemy country and a hostile neighbour. Links with Pakistan cannot be compared with a corruption charge,” added the chief minister.