Quota roster not rotated, Shimla Municipal Corporation poll aspirants upset

Shimla, March 15

For the second consecutive time, the roster of reservation of seats for the Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC) elections has not been rotated, leaving several aspiring candidates upset. “The wards, which were already reserved for women, have not been touched in the absence of rotation of the reservation roaster. As a result, the same wards continue to be reserved for women,” said a former Congress councillor.

He said that even if there was nothing legally wrong with it, the decision defeated the purpose of having a reservation roaster. “The basic idea of rotating the reservation roaster is to facilitate the participation of women in the MC elections from every ward. In the absence of rotation, many wards have not been reserved for women for two or three terms now, while several wards are continuously reserved for them,” he added.

The reservation roaster was not rotated this time because of the delimitation exercise due to which the number of wards rose from 34 to 41. Sanjay Chauhan, former Shimla Mayor, sees politics behind the reservation roaster not being rotated. “There’s a provision of 50 per cent reservation for women, but it has to be done on a rotational basis. There can’t be a reason other than political suitability behind the decision not to rotate the roster,” he said. “Every time there’s some change due to delimitation or merger of some areas, the government claims it’s a new roster and skips rotation. As a result, a few wards have remained reserved for women for three consecutive terms,” he added.