BMC Polls 2026: Ward Reservation Lottery Reshuffles Political Equations Across Mumbai

In a crucial development towards long-pending BMC elections, expected to be held in January 2026, the lottery determining reservation of wards for Scheduled Caste (SC), Schedule Tribe (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Women candidates was drawn on Tuesday. This has not only cleared the path for the political parties to finalise their candidates but will carve out the poll strategies and campaigns. Mumbai has a total of 227 civic electoral wards, of which 50% are reserved for women candidates, including SC, ST and OBC.

Major Leaders Lose Strongholds as Wards Get Reserved

The draw on Tuesday has changed the status of several heavyweight seats and former corporators, which were in general category in 2017 but are reserved for OBC for the upcoming polls, such as former Leader of Opposition and Congress corporator now with the BJP Ravi Raja (Ward 176- Sion), BJP’s Neil Somaiya, son of former MP Kirit Somaiya (Ward 108- Mulund), Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Tejasvee Ghosalkar (Ward 1, Dahisar)- whose husband Abhishek Ghosalkar was shot dead last year and BJP’s Harshita Narwekar (Ward 226- Nariman Point, Cuffe Parade), sister-in-law of Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar.

While former mayor and Sena UBT's strong candidate Snehal Ambekar's (ward 198) has been reserved for OBC, and on the other hand Shinde's Sena strong player and former standing committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav (ward 209 in Byculla) has been reserved for women. Three-time Congress corporator Asif Zakaria from Bandra (ward 101) also lost his seat after it got reserved for a women candidate.

Breakdown of Reservation: OBCs Lead the Share

A total of 15 wards are reserved for SC, out of which 8 wards are reserved for SC women candidates. While two wards are reserved for ST, out of one is reservation for ST woman candidate. Total 61 wards in Mumbai are reserved for OBCs, including 31 women OBC candidates. While 149 wards are reserved for general category candidates, including 74 women candidates from general category.

Lottery Drawn Amid Public and Administrative Presence

As the administration gears up for holding the much-anticipated BMC elections, reservation of wards is seen as the second most important step after finalising the ward boundaries. The reservation lottery was drawn by hands of school children in jam-packed Balgandharva Rangmandir, Bandra West, in the presence of BMC Commissioner and administrator Bhushan Gagrani, election department officials and hundreds of citizens watching the live broadcast out the hall as well as on YouTube.

After the BMC administration submits the lottery results to the state election commission, the draft ward reservation list will be published on November 14 and citizens can submit their suggestions/objections from November 14 to 20, following which the final ward reservation will be published on November 28.

New Framework to Alter Mumbai’s Political Map

Notably, this will be the first election under the new reservation rotation framework announced by the state urban development department last month. As per the fresh rules, the wards with the highest population of SC and ST were prioritised for reservation. Political observers say that the move by the state government also carries political weight and can potentially change the civic electoral map of Mumbai, as the parties with strong support from specific communities may benefit in the wards where they already have a strong voter base.

Delayed Polls and Legal Hurdles Finally Cleared

The last BMC polls were held in February 2017 and the corporators term ended in 2022. Since then, for the first time in the history of 152 years old BMC, the richest civic body of India with the annual budget of Rs 74,000 crore, is running without elected representatives.

In 2022, when the BMC elections were originally slated, the then Uddhav Thackeray-led government had revised the ward list and added nine new wards in Mumbai. Out of the 236 wards, 110 wards were left open for all categories, 15 seats for Scheduled castes, 2 for scheduled tribes and 109 for women in all categories. However, after the split in the Shiv Sena, which led to the toppling of the MVA government, the subsequent Eknath Shinde-led government revoked the delimitation order. The decision was challenged in the court, thereby delaying the elections.

Supreme Court Nod Paves Way for Polls

In May this year, the Supreme Court cleared the decks for holding elections of 29 local bodies in Maharashtra, including the BMC. It directed to continue the OBC reservation in the local body polls as it existed before 2022 and number of wards also remained unchanged. As the 2021 population census was not conducted, the demarcation of wards also did not change as 2011 census was considered- similar to that of 2017 civic polls.

In the 2017 BMC elections, the undivided Shiv Sena led with 84 seats, followed by the BJP with 82 seats, Congress (31), NCP (9), MNS (7) and independents 14. However, with the split in the Shiv Sena and NCP, the political dynamics have changed.

OBC wards, including women candidate

1, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 27, 32, 33, 46, 49, 52, 72, 80, 82, 100, 105, 108, 117, 128, 129, 150, 153, 158, 167, 170, 176, 191, 198, 216, 4, 10, 41, 45, 50, 63, 69, 70, 76, 85, 87, 91, 95, 111, 113, 130, 135, 136, 137, 138, 171, 182, 187, 193, 195, 208, 219, 222, 223 and 226.

Wards reserved for ST, including the women candidates are 53 and 121

Wards reserved for SC candidates, including the women are 23, 93, 151, 186, 143, 152, 155, 147, 189, 118, 183, 215, 141, 133 and 140.