Mumbai set to get a woman Mayor from General category as lottery draw concludes

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). (File photo)

Days after the Maharashtra civic polls concluded, Mumbai is now all set to get a woman Mayor with the 'General woman' category being picked in the lottery draw on Thursday.

The Urban Development Department carried out the lottery draw to decide which category will lead each civic body in Maharashtra in the upcoming term. In a major development, the lottery draw has confirmed that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be headed by a woman from the general category.

The department conducts this lottery to decide whether the mayoral post will fall under categories such as general men, general women or backward classes.

Based on this, eligible candidates from the BMC will now proceed to file their nominations. Following this, elected corporators will vote in a special assembly, where the candidate securing a majority, more than half of the total corporators, will be elected Mayor.

Uddhav faction boycotts lottery

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) boycotted the reservation lottery, alleging irregularities in the selection pattern. The faction questioned why the mayoral post was allotted once again to the General category when rotation should have shifted the seat to the OBC or another reserved category. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar claimed that the rules to arrive at this decision were changed without informing anyone.

"We condemn the way the procedure (of lottery) was conducted," Pednekar said.

As per the draw, the mayoral posts in Pune, Dhule, Nanded, Navi Mumbai, Malegaon, Mira Bhayandar, Nashik and Nagpur have also been reserved for women, according to a report by India Today.