The lottery is a major deciding factor for political parties in allocating seats to candidates. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)From two former mayors to the last leader of the Opposition, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC’s) ongoing lottery for the upcoming civic polls has seen heavyweight candidates lose their seats to reservation. The first half of the lottery concluded around 12.45 pm, while the second half is still underway.These big names include Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Milind Vaidya (182-Dadar) and Vishwanath Mahadeshwar (87-Bandra East), whose seats got reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates on Tuesday. Both Vaidya and Mahadeshwar served as Mumbai’s mayors between 1996-97 and 2017-19. In May 2023, Mahadeshwar passed away after suffering cardiac arrest.Former Congress corporator Ravi Raja, who was the leader of the Opposition in the BMC between 2017-2022, also lost his seat (176-Sion) as it was reserved for OBC candidates. Raja joined the Shinde led Shiv Sena in October last year.Congress’s three time corporator – Asif Zakaria from Bandra (west) also lost his seat (101-Bandra) after it got reserved for a women candidate.Shiv Sena’s Sandhya Doshi – who served as the chairperson in BMC’s education committee between 2017-2022 also lost her seat (Borivali-18) after it got reserved for OBC candidate. Doshi was the first amongst the former corporators to join Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena from Sena (UBT) following the vertical split in the party.Former BJP corporator Neil Somaiya (108-Mulund), the son of former BJP MP and senior BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, and former Shiv Sena (UBT) corporator Tejasvee Ghosalkar, the wife of former Sena corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar (1-Dahisar), were among those who lost their seats to the OBC quota on Tuesday. In July last year, Abhishek was shot dead in his office by his political rival Mauris Noronha.Former BJP corporator Harshita Narwekar, the sister-in-law of Rahul Narwekar, the speaker in the state Assembly, also lost her Cuffe Parade (226) seat to OBC reservation.Story continues below this adAfter a hiatus of 44 months, the BMC is gearing up for the much-awaited civic election likely to be held in January 2027. As a first step, the civic body is conducting a lottery for the reservation of the 227 wards whose boundaries have been recently reorganised following a delimitation drive.Around 27 per cent or 61 of the total seats will be reserved for OBC candidates, around 15 of for Scheduled Caste candidates, and two for Scheduled Tribe candidates. These seats are bifurcated equally between male and female candidates from each of these categories.The lottery is a major deciding factor for political parties in allocating seats to candidates, since it determines how many of the total number of wards will be reserved for women candidates or candidates from backward communities.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd