Local body polls: Maharashtra govt to seek SC order on lines of MP for OBC quota, says MVA

“We have requested the dedicated commission for OBC to send us a report on the empirical data before May so that we can go to the Supreme Court in the first week of June. We are sure that on the lines of the SC verdict given in the Madhya Pradesh case, Maharashtra will also get permission to hold the local body elections with OBC quota,” Mushrif said.

On May 18, the Supreme Court had allowed Madhya Pradesh to hold local body elections with OBC quota after the government submitted the backward class commission’s empirical data report specifying the OBC population in the poll-bound local bodies to the apex court.

He further said the government has gathered all the information related to the Madhya Pradesh government’s empirical data report. “We have requested the backward class commission to send us the report on the lines of the MP government,” Mushrif added.

Senior NCP ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil voiced similar views saying that the local body elections would be held with the OBC quota. “Before the actual commencement of the elections, the OBC reservation will be implemented. The required empirical data report will be submitted before the SC and we will seek an order on the lines of the MP government,” Walse Patil said.

Meanwhile, in a major setback to the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday issued orders to the 14 municipal corporations, including Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, to hold the reservation lottery on May 31 without OBC seats. The SEC’s order came following a direction by the Supreme Court on May 4.

The SC on May 4 said the State Election Commission must proceed with the election programme of the local bodies, which had become due on the expiry of their five-year term, and it is obliged to notify the election programme within two weeks.

The SEC told the apex court that it is not possible to hold the elections during monsoon, adding that the polls to the urban local bodies will be held in September and of the rural local bodies in October.