Mumbai, Jan 22 : The reservation lottery for the mayoral posts of 29 Municipal Corporations across Maharashtra was officially announced on Thursday in the presence of state Urban Development Minister Madhuri Misal.

A woman corporator from the open category is set to become the Mayor in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged as the single largest party across the state, the path to power remains complex.

In several corporations, the BJP is navigating the necessity of support from allies or local independent factions. Simultaneously, the ruling Mahayuti alliance faced internal friction at the local level, with state leadership granting local units the autonomy to contest against alliance partners where consensus failed.

Against this backdrop of intense political manoeuvring, the state government officially announced the reservation lottery for the prestigious Mayoral posts.

The municipal corporation wise categories for mayor Brihanmumbai (BMC) General - Women, Thane Scheduled Caste (SC), Kalyan-Dombivli Scheduled Tribe (ST) - Male, Navi Mumbai General - Women, Vasai-Virar General - Women / Men, Bhiwandi-Nizampur General - Women / Men, Mira-Bhayandar General - Women, Ulhasnagar OBC - Women or Men, Pune General - Women, Pimpri-Chinchwad General - Women / Men, Nagpur General - Women, Ahilyanagar (Ahmednagar) OBC - Women, Nashik General - Women, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar General - Women or Men, Akola OBC - Women, Amravati General - Women or Men, Latur Scheduled Caste (SC) - Women, Nanded-Waghala General - Women, Chandrapur OBC - Women, Dhule General - Women, Jalgaon OBC - Women, Malegaon General - Women, Kolhapur OBC - Women or Men, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad General, Solapur General - Women / MeN, Ichalkaranji OBC - Women or Men, Jalna Scheduled Caste (SC) - Women, Panvel OBC - Women or Men and Parbhani General - Women / Men.

The reservation draw, conducted by the Urban Development Department, has distributed the 29 Mayoral seats as follows: Scheduled Tribes (ST) one, Scheduled Castes (SC) three, Other Backward Classes (OBC) eight and General (Open) Category 17. The lottery has significantly shifted the strategies of major political parties, especially in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Western Maharashtra.

The reservation of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Pune Municipal Corporation for the Open (Women) category has set the stage for a fierce competition among prominent female corporators.

In Mumbai, where the BJP has broken the long-standing dominance of the Shiv Sena (UBT), the party must now find a candidate who can helm India's richest civic body. Meanwhile, in Kalyan-Dombivli, the ST reservation has created a unique challenge for the major alliances, as few prominent faces currently fit the criteria, potentially leading to the rise of new leadership or tactical cross-party support.

/IANS