Pune: The Maharashtra State Election Commissioner (SEC) issued a letter on Monday evening, which said that a lottery will decide the reservation for the upcoming Local Body Elections in Maharashtra on 11th November. This will determine the reservations for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Class (OBC), women candidates, and others in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC).
After this is done, it will be clear for the aspiring candidates and political parties to make strategies and plans for the polls. Political parties will decide the candidates in each ward based on the reservation.
For PMC, a total of 165 corporators will be elected from 41 wards, in which 40 wards will have four corporators, while one ward will have five corporators. According to experts, it's likely that in PMC elections, 83 seats are reserved for women, 44 for OBC, 22 for SC, and two for ST in the total 165 seats.
Meanwhile, for PCMC, out of a total of 128 seats, for 35 open seats, women's reservation is expected, and 20 seats for SC, three for ST and 35 for OBC communities will be reserved.
Prasad Katkar, in charge of PMC's Election Department, said, “PMC has started taking steps to conduct the lottery to decide reservations for the seats. The civic body is also working on declaring the draft of the ward-wise electoral roll.”
SEC will receive the proposal for the reserved seat for both PMC and PCMC between 30th October and 4th November. A declaration of the lottery will be published on 8th November, and the lottery itself will be held on 11th October. Suggestions and objections will be accepted until 24th October, before the final draft of the reservation is published on 2nd December.
