In a major setback to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday issued orders to 14 municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), to hold the reservation lottery on May 31, without OBC seats. This comes even as the MVA government has been pushing to ensure reservation for other backward classes (OBC) in local body elections.
The SEC’s latest order follows the Supreme Court’s directive on May 4, which said that reservation lottery should be held on May 31 without OBC quota.
“The SC had also mentioned in the order that till the state government fulfills the triple tests, OBC seats cannot be reserved in the local bodies’ elections. Since the process of ward boundaries of these municipal corporations has been completed, it is mandatory to give a program for reservation lottery as per the law and SC order,” said the SEC in its orders issued on Monday.
The SEC, in two separate orders, issued directions to the BMC, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivali, Ulhasnagar, Nashik, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Kolhapur, Solapur, Amaravati, Akola and Nagpur municipal corporations.
As per the SEC order, a public notice should be issued on May 27 to hold the reservation lottery for ST (Scheduled Tribe), SC (Scheduled Caste) and general category women. While the lottery should be held on May 31, the draft of the ward-wise reservation should be published on June 1, the orders added. Suggestions and objections can be raised between June 1 and 6 and the ward-wise final reservation should be published on June 13 in the state gazette, according to the orders.
On May 4, the Apex court said that the SEC must proceed with the election program of the local bodies, which had become due on the expiry of five-year term, adding the SEC is obliged to notify the election program within two weeks. The SEC also told the Supreme Court that it is not possible to hold the elections in the monsoon and further said that elections of the urban local bodies will be held in September and of rural local bodies in October.
Sources in the government said that even though the SEC has issued a program for reservation lottery, the elections are likely to be held in September-October and the government, by then, would ensure OBC quota in the local bodies.
“Even if the reservation lottery is held as per the SEC’s schedule, it does not mean that the elections can be held during the monsoon. The backward class commission headed by Jayant Kumar Banthia may submit its report in the first week of June. Then, the government may approach the Supreme Court with the report to ensure OBC quota in the local bodies,” said a cabinet minister, requesting anonymity.
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In its order on March 4 last year, the Supreme Court, while reading down the OBC reservation in local bodies, asked the state government to comply with triple conditions — setting up a dedicated commission for collecting empirical data on OBC population, specifying the proportion of reservation, and ensuring that the cumulative share of reserved seats does not breach 50 per cent of total seats.
While the government has appointed a dedicated commission for preparing a report, it has also passed resolution during the winter session to provide up to 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in the local bodies. With this, the government has cleared the two tests while the dedicated commission’s report would ensure fulfillment of the third test condition.
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