With BJP And Shiv Sena Going At It, The BMC Elections Promise Fireworks Aplenty

This Sunday, the only day when Mumbai roads are bearable and trains – if they are not delayed due to maintenance work – are accessible, was slightly different. For the past few days the election rallies have assumed war-like proportions and this weekend was the culmination of all things political. Public meetings of all the parties were mostly done by Saturday evening and Sunday was reserved for bike rallies and door-to-door campaigns. And Monday felt unusually quiet with only election commission issuing basic information to the media.

For a total of 227 wards, 2275 candidates will be slogging it out on Tuesday even as speculation over how many of the 91,80,497 voters would actually turn out to cast their ballot. Mumbai is notorious for making a holiday out of voting day and not turning out to vote. Neighbouring Goa may have reported an 83% turnout in the recent state assembly elections, but Mumbai in particular has not recorded more than 46% in the last two civic polls. However, that hasn’t stopped leaders of all parties from campaigning in as shrill a way as possible.

After Shiv Sena called it quits with the BJP in a grand announcement on Balasaheb Thackeray’s birth anniversary last month, both the parties have been going at each other like never before. While Uddhav Thackeray called them corrupt and inefficient, Fadnavis insisted that the state government will last a full five years – hinting that they are not dependent on their ally.

Madhav Bhandari senior of BJP says, “How long can you go on driving if the person sitting next to you is nagging every minute, at every step?” He is referring to the endless bickering that has gone on in this alliance, which is hanging by the thread in the state government.

The morale of party workers of Shiv Sena seems to have lifted though. “There will be more space now. We can have more candidates and we can do more work,” says senior leader Neelam Gorhe, who insists that decisions about the state and the centre will be taken by the party president Uddhav Thackeray. Both the parties have fielded candidates Sena in all 227 wards and BJP in over 200.

Political experts say that BJP has had to fight an opposition within alliance - all the work of opposition has been done by the Sena. This is something that leaders in Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and Congress happily agree.

Sharad Pawar himself has campaigned for the ZP elections, happening at the same time in rest of the state, taking on BJP. However, his initial support for demonetisation and the conferring of Padma Vibhushan has not gone unnoticed in the recent weeks. “It is like an insurance policy for BJP. In case they need NCP’s help, they can ask,” says former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan about the Padma Vibhushan. Undoubtedly Shard Pawar is one of the seniormost politicians of the state, even country, but the allegations of corruption against his nephew and other leader Chagan Bhujbal, who remains in jail, have made him weary, if not downright weak. Congress has been at second position after BJP in several small elections, perhaps making inroads all over again. Congress leaders joke about the fable where two cats fight over a slab of butter and the monkey takes it away.

And here the slab of butter is not just the city of Mumbai, which pays the highest tax, is still the financial capital of the country. Thanks to confused campaigning about decisions, achievements and promises without making a difference between the city, state, central government levels, the impact of this election might have wide ramifications in terms of image building for all political parties.

However, general public is more concerned about basic life such as inflation, roads and water supply. “The price of LPG cylinder has gone up again. How are we to survive if prices of everything rise at this rate? What is the use of all these advertisements everywhere?” Asks Ranjana, a house-help. Perhaps what happens here on Tuesday and more importantly on counting day on February 23rd might just reflect this sentiment over all the cacophony of grand announcements and raging fights. But then who knows if the affected common man will pay heed to all those voter campaigns and step out or just say “chalta hai, ye bambai hai,” one more time…