Nagpur: Maharashtra Government, in a draw held on Friday (June 10), announced reservations for posts of Zilla Parishad Presidents of 34 districts across the State. Accordingly, the post of Nagpur ZP President has been reserved for woman from Scheduled Caste (SC) category. Even otherwise, the affairs of Nagpur Zilla Parishad were being run by a woman President. Now, the next elections to ZP are going to be held in 2017. However, the Congress party has been found sleeping as far as its strategy for the next ZP poll is concerned. The party is still undecided whether the next election would be contested under the leadership of present President or the new leader.
With the post of Nagpur ZP President being reserved for a SC woman the political parties will have to change their equations for fighting the next poll. For the sake of history, Nagpur Zilla Parishad came into existence in 1962. Since then elections for President’s post have been held for 21 times. Out of these 21 Presidents, most of them belonged to OBC category men. Only five women could occupy the chair during this period including a woman belonging to SC category. Reservation period for ZP President is for two and half years. Most of the members of Nagpur ZP till to date were from OBC category. At present, Neesha Savarkar is occupying the President’s post. Before her tenure, the post was reserved for open category woman. Subsequently, Sandhya Gotmare was President. Similarly, Suresh Bhoyar from OBC and Ramesh Mankar from open category had become Presidents. The strength of Nagpur ZP members is 59. While 10 members are from SC category including five women the number of ST members is 8 including four women. Other category members are 25 including 13 women.
Surprisingly, despite the Nagpur ZP President’s post being reserved for woman from SC category, a party like Congress has been found napping with no strategy on table. The party has very few members, such as Nana Kambhale, who could emerge winners again on their own charisma. Now, who will be next party woman candidate for the post of ZP President from SC category is being discussed hotly in political circles.
– Rajeev Ranjan Kushwaha ( rajeev.nagpurtoday@gmail.com )
