The reservation for mayoral posts in Maharashtra’s 29 municipal corporations will be determined today, January 22, 2026, by the state Urban Development Department. The department, functioning under the leadership of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, will use a lottery system to decide which city’s mayoral post will be reserved for which category.
Municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra have been completed, and the process to finalise reservations for all 29 mayoral posts will conclude today. The Urban Development Department will conduct the lottery at 11 am to determine whether the mayoral post in each municipal corporation will be reserved for the general category, Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, or women.
Under this process, it will also be clarified whether the mayoral post in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Pune Municipal Corporation, and other municipal corporations will be reserved for women or men from the designated category. The lottery will be conducted under the chairmanship of State Minister Madhuri Misal.
The reservation of mayoral posts in Maharashtra is decided on a rotational basis. In the previous term, the mayoral post in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation was reserved for the general category. Accordingly, the general category will not be included in the lottery for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation this time. Similarly, in other municipal corporations, the category and class that held the mayoral post in the previous term will be excluded from the current rotation.
After the reservation is finalised through the lottery, the process for electing mayors in the municipal corporations will begin. The elections will be conducted through voting by councillors in the respective municipal corporation houses.
The responsibility for determining reservations for mayoral posts in Maharashtra’s municipal corporations rests with the Deputy Chief Minister and the Urban Development Department. The department will complete the process in accordance with established rules and procedures. Once the lottery is concluded, the reservation status of mayoral posts across all 29 municipal corporations will be formally clarified.
