KOCHI: The corporations of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Kozhikode will see woman mayors after the upcoming local body elections later this year. Similarly, all municipalities which are headed by men now will be reserved for woman chairpersons in the Kerala local self-government (LSG) polls, scheduled during the second half of this year.“The corporation mayor posts which were reserved for women in the 2015 LSG polls will be de-reserved and those which are headed by men will be reserved for women in this year’s local body polls,” a senior officer at the State Election Commission’s office told TNIE.
Kerala has six corporations -- Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kollam, Thrissur and Kannur. Three corporations -- Kochi, Kannur and Thrissur -- are currently reserved for woman mayors. These corporations will be de-reserved, and are most likely to see men at the helm after the polls. The state has a total of 941 village panchayats (grama panchayats), 152 block panchayats and 14 district panchayats; and in the urban areas, the state has 87 municipalities, in addition to the six corporations.
Kerala has reserved 50 per cent of the seats for women since the 2015 local polls, increasing the allocation from the earlier 33 per cent. Other states that have reserved 50 per cent of the seats for women in local bodies are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar (1st state to reserve 50 per cent of seats for women), Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, West Bengal and Uttarakhand. The officer said 50 per cent of the municipalities and panchayats will also be reserved for women at the top as chairpersons and presidents.
The municipalities and panchayats which were reserved for woman chairpersons and panchayat presidents in the 2015 civic polls will be de-reserved in this year’s local body polls. This does not bar political parties from nominating woman candidates to head the local bodies over and above the limit prescribed.
“But what it means is that this time, we will have a completely different set of local bodies, which will be reserved for women as their heads,” said the officer. For instance, Ernakulam district has a total of 13 municipalities. Of these, 10 have woman chairpersons now. Though 50 per cent of the seats are reserved for women, the political parties can propose more number of women than prescribed during the elections, he added.