Pune Municipal Corporation seats may reduce to 166, fresh reservation lottery soon

MUMBAI/PUNE: The two member cabinet of the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government reversed the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s government decision of increasing the number of seats in all civic bodies and redrawing of ward boundaries. Sources said the ward boundaries will revert to the 2017 format, but fresh lotteries will be drawn to finalise the wards for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Communities and women.
The decision on Wednesday to restructure the number of civic wards on the basis of population has set off a debate among civic poll aspirants and civic observers over a likely reduction in the number of elected members in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) from the declared 173 to 166 and the possibility of a fresh delimitation exercise
As per the decision, a municipal corporation with more than 30 lakh population will have a minimum of 161 and a maximum of 175 elected members. A provision for one additional elected member for every one lakh population above the 30 lakh figure has been made, the decision states. The PMC fits into these criteria as it has a population of 35.56 lakh according to the 2011 Census.
Civic observers pointed out Pune's population is 5.56 lakh more than the 30 lakh threshold for minimum 161 elected members. As such, there will be an addition of five to six additional elected members and this will take the total number of elected members to 166 or 167. In that case, the number of elected members in the PMC will reduce by five to six seats from the existing total 173 seats.
When contacted, Yashwant Mane, a senior officer from the PMC's election department, told TOI, "It would be too early to comment on this development. The PMC has not received any official communication about the cabinet decision."
City BJP chief and former MLA Jagdish Mulik said in a statement released on Wednesday that the MVA government had taken a wrong decision to form three-member wards.
"They did not consider the natural boundaries of the civic area for the purpose of delimitation and went on to create wards in an unrestricted manner, depriving many aspirants of their poll prospects. Now, with this cabinet decision, there will be equal opportunity for all," he said.
City NCP president and former mayor Prashant Jagtap said, "We will assess the impact of the state cabinet decision to see if it is in any way leading to the formation of a four-member ward which we are opposed to and will continue to oppose. In the case of a four-member ward, we will exercise the option of moving the Supreme Court."
As per 2022 delimitation, 139 members were to be elected from 36 wards in the Pimpri Chinchwad municipal limits. The equation is likely to change based on the state government's latest decision. In the 2017 civic polls, there were 128 elected representatives from 32 civic wards.
In Mumbai, the number of corporators in the BMC will remain at 227 for the forthcoming civic elections. The MVA government had increased it to 236.
The proposal placed before the cabinet for reversing the increase in seats said that in the absence of a fresh population census, it was not appropriate to increase the number of councillor seats.
When the MVA government had increased the number of seats for the local bodies, the law and judiciary department had objected to the increase saying that no census had been conducted.
The cabinet also approved a proposal to amend the Maharashtra ZP Act to reduce the minimum number of seats to 50 instead of the current 55 and the maximum to 75 instead of the present 85.