Political

Women's reservation in 70 wards final list published for Kolkata municipality elections

• By A Correspondent, Kolkata
• October 09, 2026
• 1150

Political activity around the upcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections has increased significantly in one fell swoop. The final list of reserved seats in the municipality was published last Wednesday night. As soon as this notification was published, the calculations of candidate selection and election strategy have started within the political parties of the metropolis. According to the final list, out of the increased 209 wards, a total of 70 wards have been reserved for women. Out of these, 66 seats have been reserved for general women and 4 seats have been reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) women.

The final notification was issued by the District Magistrate (DM) of South 24 Parganas, Abhishek Kumar Tiwari, in accordance with Rules 3 and 4 of the West Bengal Municipal Elections (Reservation of Seats) Act, 1994. Several important partial changes have been made in this final list compared to the draft list published earlier, which may upset the familiar equation of many familiar wards.

The total number of wards in Kolkata is 209 (after the draft delimitation based on the 2011 census, the number of wards has been increased from 144 to 209). A total of 70 seats are reserved for women. Out of these, 66 are reserved for general women (i.e. wards numbered 1, 4, 7, 10, 13 etc.) and 4 wards (wards numbered 25, 75, 154 and 197) are reserved for Scheduled Caste women.

The political significance of the release of this final list of reservations is very deep. With the seats of many wards being reserved for women for current councilors or long-standing male candidates, the parties will have to look for completely new or female faces. As a result, managing the internal conflicts over ticket distribution and creating a new equation is going to be a big challenge.

Although the State Election Commission has not yet announced the final and official schedule of the polls. However, according to the latest high-level meeting of the Navanna and the Commission, the official notification may be issued by the end of October or the beginning of November, once the Durga Puja and festival season is over. For now, after the publication of this final list of women's reservation, the election atmosphere has started to rise across Kolkata.