Mumbai: Political tensions escalated at Mantralaya on Thursday after the Maharashtra Urban Development Department conducted the reservation lottery for mayoral posts across the state. The opposition, led by former Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar of Shiv Sena (UBT), staged a walkout, alleging that the process was biased and amounted to “injustice to OBC and ST communities.”
The protest followed the announcement that the Mumbai Mayor’s post will be reserved under the General category for the upcoming term. Strongly objecting to the decision, Kishori Pednekar accused the state government of deliberately excluding representation from areas with a significant OBC population.
“This lottery was carried out with a pre-decided intent. Areas where the OBC community lives in large numbers were ignored. This is completely unacceptable,” Pednekar said while addressing reporters outside Mantralaya.
She further added, “Injustice has been done to OBCs and STs. The government designed this process to deny them fair representation. We strongly condemn this lottery.”
Despite the opposition protest, the lottery result has formally cleared the path for the mayoral election. With the post falling under the General category, civic rotation norms indicate that Mumbai is likely to get a woman mayor in the upcoming term.
The mayoral election is scheduled for January 28, when all 227 corporators will participate in the voting process.
The episode comes amid a major shift in Mumbai’s civic politics. In the January 15 BMC elections, the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, while its ally, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, secured 29 seats—ending nearly three decades of dominance by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
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