A new draw has been conducted to determine the wards reserved for women in the Kochi Corporation for the upcoming local public polls after the initial draw was challenged in the Supreme Court for wrongly reserving a division already reserved for women in the 2020 elections.
Devankulangara – now Division 38 and earlier Division 32 before delimitation – was mistakenly reserved for women in the initial draw for the second consecutive election. As per statutory provisions and State Election Commission guidelines, any ward reserved for women in the previous elections should be excluded and included in the general category for the current elections.
KA Vijayakumar, a former councilor who represented the division from 2015 to 2020, filed a petition in the Kerala High Court challenging the reservation and seeking exclusion of the division from the list of seats reserved for women. Devankulangara was among the 43 divisions shortlisted to determine the 38 divisions to be reserved for women. After the delimitation, the number of divisions in the corporation increased from 74 to 76, leading to two additional seats reserved for women.
Objections were also raised regarding the reservation of Divisions 56 and 66. Apart from Devankulangara, the newly formed Stadium Division (Division 34) was also dropped from the list of 43 divisions selected for the draw to determine the reserved divisions. Interestingly, Thammanam Division (41), which was reserved for a Scheduled Caste woman in the initial draw, remained in the same category in the second draw.
Thazhuppu (57) and Konthuruthy (52) were the other two divisions reserved for Scheduled Caste women. The divisions reserved for women are: Fort Kochi (1), Kalvathy (2), Eeraveli (3), Cheralayi (5), Mattancherry (6), Chakkamadom (7), Karuvelipady (8), Gandhi Nagar (12), Kathrikadavu (13), Pottakkuzhi (20), Vaduthalakkara West (224), Elnumpuramnek (29), Changampuzha (31), Karanakodam. (35), Puthiya Road (36), Padivattom (37), Chakkaraparambu (39), Chalikkavattom (40), Elamkulam (42), Ponnurunni East (45) and Thevara (53).
Published – 5 Nov 2025 23:06 IST
