The Kolkata Municipal Corporation election reservation process has begun with a draft order identifying wards reserved for Scheduled Castes and women across all 209 municipal constituencies. No ward has been reserved for the Scheduled Tribe category in the draft, which will remain open to objections and suggestions for two weeks before the final order is issued.
The order was released on Wednesday by Abhishek Kumar Tiwari, IAS, the District Magistrate of South 24-Parganas and the prescribed authority appointed by the West Bengal State Election Commission. The document sets out the proposed reservation arrangement for councillor elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
Under the draft, 12 wards have been earmarked for candidates from the Scheduled Caste category. These are wards 006, 028, 031, 052, 075, 126, 144, 154, 158, 197, 200 and 201. The draft does not reserve any ward for the Scheduled Tribe category.
Four wards have been designated for women candidates from the Scheduled Caste category: 006, 052, 144 and 197. No ward has been listed for women from the Scheduled Tribe category because no ward has been reserved for that category in the draft arrangement.
The proposed list also includes 57 wards in the general women’s reservation category. These are wards 001, 004, 008, 011, 014, 017, 020, 023, 026, 030, 034, 037, 040, 043, 046, 049, 053, 056, 059, 062, 065, 068, 071, 074, 078, 081, 084, 087, 090, 093, 096, 099, 102, 105, 108, 111, 114, 117, 120, 123, 127, 130, 133, 136, 139, 142, 146, 149, 152, 156, 160, 163, 166, 169, 172, 175, 178, 181, 184, 187, 190, 193, 196, 202, 205 and 208.
The reservation schedule has immediate implications for the municipal election process because it determines which wards can be contested under specific social-category and gender reservations. However, the administration has not treated the published list as final. The order explicitly identifies it as a draft and provides a two-week period for residents and other stakeholders to submit objections or suggestions.
The South 24-Parganas district administration will consider the submissions before issuing the final reservation order. Until that process is completed, the ward-wise reservation status remains subject to change. The release of the preliminary list is nevertheless expected to accelerate political and electoral activity around the proposed Kolkata Municipal Corporation election, according to the report carrying the announcement.
