Maharashtra local bodies polls likely by April 2025 if SC decides on OBC quota: Bawankule

Nagpur: Maharashtra minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Wednesday said the pending elections to local bodies in the state will be held in March-April 2025 if the Supreme Court gives its decision on the OBC reservation in the first week of January.

Addressing a press conference here, he said a hearing on the quota for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) is listed in the apex court in the first week of January.

"The State Election Commission will conduct the polls and the state government will provide all the support," the Revenue Minister said.

The five-year term of most of the municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and other local bodies in the state expired in 2022.

In December 2021, the Supreme Court had ruled that reservation for OBCs in local bodies will not be allowed unless the government fulfils the triple test laid down in the apex court's 2010 order. It had ruled that until the triple test criteria is fulfilled, the OBC seats will be re-notified as general category seats.

The triple test required the state government to set up a dedicated commission to gather data on the backwardness of OBCs in every local body, to specify the proportion of reservation in each local body in light of commission’s recommendations, and ensure that such reservation does not exceed 50 per cent of the total seats reserved for SC/ST/OBC together.

Bawankule further said there were complaints that several properties owned by private charitable trusts and educational institutions were forcibly taken over by the Waqf Board in Maharashtra.

"Once the Waqf (Amendment) Bill is cleared by Parliament, it will be implemented in Maharashtra. If there are any wrongdoings, they will be rectified," he said.

The Maharashtra BJP chief said that under the Survey of Villages Abadi and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA), the process to conduct a drone survey of villages began in 2021 to provide e-property cards to farmers for ownership of their land in rural areas.

The e-property cards in 15,327 of the 30,515 villages are ready and will be distributed soon, he said.