Pune: A lottery to decide reservations for seats of SC, ST, OBC, and women candidates in the upcoming civic polls will be held on Nov 11, as per a letter issued on Monday by the state election commission (SEC) to all municipal corporations.The process is vital for aspirants to draw up plans for the polls and for political parties to decide candidatures based on seats reserved for different categories. For Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), 165 corporators will be elected from 41 wards, of which 40 wards will have four corporators, while one ward will have five corporators. Reservations will be decided based on population of SC, ST, and OBC communities per ward. It is likely that among 165 corporators, 83 seats are reserved for women, 44 for OBC, 22 for SC, and 2 seats for ST. Prasad Katkar, head of PMC’s election department, said details of the number of reserved seats will be out in the next couple of days. “PMC has initiated steps to conduct the lottery to decide reservations for the seats and is also working on declaring the draft of the ward-wise electoral roll,” he told TOI. As per the schedule declared by SEC, PMC will put forth a proposal of reserved seats before the EC between Oct 30 and Nov 4. A declaration pertaining to the lottery will be published on Nov 8, while the lottery will be held on Nov 11. The suggestions and objections on the lottery will be accepted until Nov 24. A final draft of reservations will be published on Dec 2. An aspirant from Baner said he was looking forward to the reservation lottery as it will set the ball rolling. “In case the reservation is not in one’s favour, it is most likely that aspirants will jump from one party to another or even change the ward to fight the elections,” the aspirant said, choosing anonymity.
