Greater Chennai Corporation has set aside 100 wards for women after the Madras High Court overturned its previous ruling, which had given more over half of the wards to women. The new order reserves 16 wards for scheduled caste (women), 16 for scheduled caste (general), and 84 for women (general). The highlight, though, was that all three corporations here — Chennai, Tambaram, and Avadi — had reserved mayors for SCs, with Chennai and Tambaram having their first female mayors.
The reservation has been praised by Dalit activists and political parties, particularly in Chennai. D Ravikumar, MP for Villupuram and general secretary of Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi, stated, “It is a welcome move. It is based on the population and demography data and this is something that we have been fighting for several years. However, to reserve it for a woman candidate is laudable.”
Former councillors, on the other hand, were dissatisfied with the manner seats were allocated, claiming that numerous wards in Chennai with a low SC population had been reserved. M Gunasekaran, a former AIADMK councillor from Virugambakkam, echoed his view, “in West Mambalam, areas that have no SC population have been reserved for SC candidates. We cannot understand the rationale as they haven’t shared the population data with us. Usually, the norm is that wards with higher women voters and higher SC population are reserved for those candidates.”
Even in Coimbatore, according to former AIADMK councillor S Manimeghalai, several wards with a lesser SC population, such as Chettiveethi, were designated for SC candidates, while wards with a greater SC population, such as Kamarajapuram, were reserved for general candidates. She said, “the rationale can only be deemed political.”
Reserving Chennai and Tambaram for SC women, according to DMK office-bearers and ministers, was in accordance with party rules and conformed to the party's ideology. MA Subramanian, the health minister and former mayor of Chennai, said, “we always have given deputy secretary posts to women in our party and we have several strong women candidates. As far as reservation is concerned, our party has always voiced the concerns of the SC communities and also supported the Mandal Commission. We want women to lead governance”.
