The Apex Court on Wednesday accepted the Banthia commission report and allowed 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in all the upcoming local body polls in the state. However, the decision has started giving jitters to aspiring OBC candidates in the upcoming Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) elections as the number of seats reserved for this category is likely to go down from the existing 26 to 19.
Presently, the strength of OBC representatives stands at 26 (27 percent) in the 95-member MBMC house. Although the number of elected representatives in the civic body will go up from the existing 95 to 106 after the final ward formation declared by the state election commission (SEC) on Monday (18, July), the number of OBC seats instead of going up by three and increasing to 29 may go down to 19, sources said. As per the empirical data, the population of OBC voters in the twin-city stands at 1,15,363 which is 18.4 percent of the total electorate which is pegged at 6,28,720.
The calculation may witness a drop-in number of OBC reserved seats from 26 to 19. However, civic officials refused to clarify or comment on the issue until they receive an official direction from the SEC regarding the reservation and lottery process. The five-year tenure of the civic body ends in August, this year.
