Nagpur: The newly elected Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) may be in place, but the city remains without clarity on who will occupy the Mayor’s chair. In an unprecedented situation in the corporation’s history, the process to determine reservation for the post of Mayor is yet to be completed, leaving the House fully constituted but leaderless at the top.
The delay stems from the unresolved dispute over OBC reservation ratios in urban local bodies — an issue now before the Supreme Court. Of the 29 municipal corporations where elections were recently held across Maharashtra, Nagpur and Chandrapur are the only two where uncertainty persists over the number of OBC-reserved seats. The Urban Development Department (UDD) is awaiting the apex court’s ruling, scheduled for January 21, before moving ahead with the reservation draw for mayoral posts.
Once the Supreme Court delivers its verdict, the State Government is expected to proceed with the long-pending lottery to decide reservation for the mayor’s post in all 29 corporations. Political circles in Nagpur are already abuzz with speculation, with strong indications that the mayor’s post here could be reserved for Scheduled Caste (General), a category that has never produced a Mayor in the NMC so far.
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21 Jan 2026
If that scenario materialises, the advantage is likely to tilt towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has secured more than one-fourth of the total seats in the House. With several senior BJP leaders either sidelined or defeated in the polls, the party’s options have narrowed, though the final call will rest with the party’s parliamentary board, acting on recommendations from the state leadership.
Meanwhile, the Urban Development Department has formally announced that the lottery for mayoral reservation will be held on January 22 at Mantralaya. The draw will determine whether the mayor’s post in each municipal corporation is open or reserved for women, OBCs, Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes. The notification has brought some movement to an otherwise stalled process.
Following the declaration of reservation, the municipal commissioner will convene the first meeting of the civic House, where the mayoral election will be held if required. The candidate securing the highest number of votes will be declared elected.
According to UDD sources, the official gazette confirming the results of municipal corporation elections is expected to be published by Monday evening. Once notified, political parties — especially in cities where the mayoral contest is expected to be close — will begin the formal process of registering their groups within the civic body at the offices of the district collector or divisional commissioner.
Until the legal knot over OBC reservations is untied, however, Nagpur’s mayoral suspense continues, making this one of the rare occasions where the city has a full House, but no certainty over who will lead it.
