Mumbai: BMC lottery shakes up city's political turf ahead of civic polls

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC on Tuesday concluded its reservation lottery for 227 electoral wards ahead of the civic polls scheduled for next year The draw was held at Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir in Bandra West reshuffling the cityrsquos political map and leaving several prominent leaders without their home turfThe lottery has upended the prospects of several political heavyweights across party lines mdash many of whom were elected in the 2017 BMC elections and have since worked behind the scenes to retain their voter base Among the prominent names hit by the reshuffle is Ravi Raja former leader of opposition in the BMC and fivetime corporator who joined BJP last year His ward has now been reserved under the OBC women categoryldquoEight out of ten wards in the F North division MatungaSion area have been reserved for womenrdquo Raja told midday ldquoFor 25 years I have worked in the SionDharavi area which covers eight wards mdash seven are now reserved for women and only one is open I will follow the partyrsquos direction and support our candidates during the campaignrdquoIn Bandra threetime corporator Asif Zakaria has lost Ward 101 which has been reserved for women while the adjoining ward has been marked for OBC women candidates ldquoI will not contest this yearrdquo Zakaria confirmedOther leaders who have lost their electoral strongholds include BJPrsquos Parag Shah the cityrsquos richest corporator in the 2017ndash22 term Sandhya Doshi former Education Committee chairperson from Shiv Sena now with the Shinde faction and Neil Somaiya son of senior BJP leader Kirit SomaiyaDr Ashwini Joshi additional municipal commissioner left and Bhushan Gagarani municipal commissioner at BMCrsquos ward delimitation draw at Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir in Bandra West on Tuesday PICSAYYED SAMEER ABEDIFrom the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MNS senior leader Sandeep Deshpande who represented Ward 191 in 2017 has also been affected An MNS representative told midday ldquoWard 191 is now reserved However adjoining wards are open The final call on contesting will rest with party chief Raj Thackeray There is scope for familiar faces to contest from nearby wardsrdquoHowever several leaders have retained their wards These include Rakhee Jadhav former mayor Kishori Pednekar and former mayor Milind Vaidya who led Mumbai in 1996 and remains a key Shiv Sena UBT figure from the partyrsquos Dadar strongholdPolitical parties are now assessing the new ward maps and their impact on candidate selection A senior BJP leader said ldquoOur ground cadre has been working with the understanding that the reservation lottery could change the equation This doesnrsquot affect our broader strategyrdquoA Congress leader added ldquoWe are evaluating the impact of the reservations and have invited applications from popular candidates The deadline has been extended to accommodate more names Wersquoll take a call once the complete picture is clearrdquoPolitical analyst Prakash Akolkar summed it up succinctly ldquoThe lottery system boils everything down to luck for several senior leaders Party strategies will now have to be reworked mdash and wersquoll soon see how the chips fallrdquoFormer corporators speakldquoMy electoral ward has been reserved for women this year I am certain I will contest and win the elections as this is my home turfrdquoRakhee Jadhav NCPSP leaderldquoI have retained my ward Falling under the OBC category and holding an OBC certificate I am eligible to contest from this wardrdquoMilind Vaidya Shiv Sena UBT former Mayor of MumbaildquoAs a senior Shiv Sena UBT leader I have worked tirelessly in my ward for the past three years I am very happy to get another chance to contest I have maintained close connections with my voters and tried to solve local issues to the best of my capacity despite not holding an elected post for the past three years I have always been available to my peoplerdquoKishori Pednekar Shiv Sena UBT and former Mayor of MumbaildquoMy ward has been reserved under the OBC women category this year Interestingly eight out of ten electoral wards in the FNorth division of the Island City MatungandashSion area have been reserved for women For 25 years I have worked extensively in the SionDharavi area which covers eight electoral wards mdash seven of which are now reserved for women leaving only one open ward I will follow my partyrsquos direction and support our candidates during the election campaignrdquo Ravi Raja BJPldquoI will not contest this year as my electoral Ward No 101 has now been reserved for women The adjoining ward has also been reserved for OBC women Hence I will not be contesting this timerdquoAsif Zakaria CongressldquoI may have lost my candidature but we will seerdquoVishakha Raut Shiv Sena UBT former Mayor of Mumbai 1997 and exMLA from Dadar