Fairer sex to outdo men in next BMC

Political experts say 50 per cent reservation for women plus open seats may lead to nearly 135 of the 227 seats having female corporators; express fears of corporators making their wives and daughters contest their seats to avoid losing power

IN a first in any municipal corporation across the country, the next BMC is all set to be composed of more female corporators than male.



With 50 per cent, or 114 of the 227 BMC seats now being reserved for the fairer sex, the 2012 BMC polls could see women walking away with a staggering 130-135 seats.

The lottery to decide which seats will be reserved for women will be held on Wednesday, which has many male corporators losing sleep over the possibility of being thrown out of their seats without even contesting the upcoming polls.

While political experts have hailed the reservation as a move towards greater equality, they have also expressed fears of existing corporators making their wives and family members contest the reserved seats, effectively retaining the areas as their fiefdoms.

"In the last BMC polls in 2007, only 76 seats were reserved for women, but the final list had 95 women because of people like Mayor Shraddha Jadhav winning from the open seats.

If these stats are anything to go by, the next BMC house could see 60 per cent, or 136, of the corporators being women," said a senior BMC officer.

Anurag Chaturvedi, a senior journalist and political expert, said he was sure that the presence of more women in the BMC would do good to the city, "Reservation is a positive approach and the condition of the city will improve with more women corporators taking charge of its administration. Women are more aware about issues related to education and health," he said.

"There is a high possibility, however, of most of the reserved seats being occupied by wives, daughters or female relatives of existing corporators to retain power.

At the same time, we should remember that the daughters and sisters of people like Arun Gawli are doing a much better job than their husbands and fathers."

Last word
Former mayor Mahadeo Deole, however, expressed fears of the reservation causing an imbalance instead of greater equality.

"33 per cent reservation was good but things may go haywire with it being pushed up to 50. There should be some sort of a balance in reservation too, lest it ends up causing an imbalance in society," he said.


Rahul Shewale

Three downu00a0for Sena
The seats reserved for SC, ST and OBC categories were announced on Friday, which will lead to three important Shiv Sena corporators BMC Standing Committee Chairperson Rahul Shewale, Leader of the House Sunil Prabhu and BEST Committee Chairperson Sunil Shinde losing their current constituencies.