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A day after the state election commission asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and 13 other civic bodies to hold reservation lottery without OBC seats, leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on Tuesday said that it would take steps to ensure OBC quota in local body polls before the actual commencement of the elections. They added that attempts would also be made to seek permission of the Supreme Court on the lines of the Madhya Pradesh government for holding elections with OBC quota.
Hasan Mushrif, NCP leader and state rural development minister, said the MVA government has been in favour of holding the local body elections with OBC quota and efforts have been made in that direction.
On May 18, the Supreme Court had allowed Madhya Pradesh to hold local body elections with OBC quota after the government submitted the backward class commission’s empirical data report specifying the OBC population in the poll-bound local bodies to the apex court.
He further said the government has gathered all the information related to the Madhya Pradesh government’s empirical data report. “We have requested the backward class commission to send us the report on the lines of the MP government,” Mushrif added.
Senior NCP ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil voiced similar views saying that the local body elections would be held with the OBC quota. “Before the actual commencement of the elections, the OBC reservation will be implemented. The required empirical data report will be submitted before the SC and we will seek an order on the lines of the MP government,” Walse Patil said.
Meanwhile, in a major setback to the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday issued orders to the 14 municipal corporations, including Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, to hold the reservation lottery on May 31 without OBC seats. The SEC’s order came following a direction by the Supreme Court on May 4.
The SC on May 4 said the State Election Commission must proceed with the election programme of the local bodies, which had become due on the expiry of their five-year term, and it is obliged to notify the election programme within two weeks.
The SEC told the apex court that it is not possible to hold the elections during monsoon, adding that the polls to the urban local bodies will be held in September and of the rural local bodies in October.
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