In about a weeks time, municipal elections for the city of Mumbai will reach its ultimate fitting climax. The lucrative body of the BMC oversees a budget of thousands of crores and governs the economic capital of the country. Considering the stakes involved in the fray, parties try to push the envelope and campaign akin to state or Lok Sabha elections. Although five parties are in the reckoning to control the body catering to an astronomical financial pie, only two of them seems to have spearheaded themselves into spotlight.
Elections for the BMC now has in reality reduced itself into a prestige issue and contest between the BJP and its erstwhile saffron partner Shiv Sena.
BJP now sees Maharashtra as a part of its fledging national prominence and essentially BMC forms the crux of the same. The party which is basking in the glory of being at the centre and even in the state now wants to hold sway over the only remaining layer to dominant the state politics. Shiv Sena on the other hand being completely insecure about the rise of the BJP in the state has not only broken the alliance taking a cue from Nitish Kumar but also seems to be clutching its slipping straws in order to survive the changing dynamics of Maharashtrian polity.
With the match now being electorally reduced from a round robin stage to its nail biting finale, the slugfest has further shifted gears and honed specifically on the captains of the fighting parties.
Uddhav Thackeray is not fighting the elections for the maiden time. However this is the very first occasion he is trying to save his fiefdom without the man who established it. Winning BMC post Bal Thackeray demise has now become a mixture of prestige issue and that survival instinct the Shiv Sena needs to highlight after breaking ties arrogantly with the BJP. Chalking an independent pathway is an ambition but the way it’s being chased demonstrates political harakiri sans immaturity.
With every passing day, Uddhav Thackeray has gone bonkers despising the Modi Govt and in that midst has completely decimated ideology and intermixed several political philosophies. In a recent television interview, he expressed hope of Akhilesh Yadav coming to power again, nose diving into a pseudo secular so called socialist outfit (forgetting Bal Thackeray stand and fight with Communism). Before that he even had publicly hosted Hardik Patel who is known for his demands of caste reservations which again was lambasted by late Bal Thackeray. He also pushed for a Marathi Gujarati harmony which was swaying away from his son of the soils movement and a characteristic u turn of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls where he was propagating Gujarati dominance here. The undercurrents of his hobnobbing towards Hardik Patel are about cutting Gujarati votes but his tactics may have deserved a better prospective individual than Patel.
In all this drama, those wilful yet thunderous speeches of Bal Thackeray that roused and propelled the crowds then is nowhere seen in his son. The poor admixture of not having a commanding personality and harbouring weak strategies will test water in a week.
Reading an interview he gave to the Times of India, he blamed the centre for road and sanitation problems which reflected the depth of his preparedness to face tough questions.
Whilst Shiv Sena is all about survival this elections, BJP is all about extending its empire. Nevertheless, BMC polls will also be used by the CM Devendra Fadnavis as a reflective referendum of his short tenure and public reaction post demonetisation. CM coming out to campaign as close to the office where Shiv Sena mouthpiece Samna is located has exhibited the seething rivalry and the war of words have been exchanged directly with Uddhav Thackeray which seems a confrontational approach applied. CM Fadnavis personally campaigning may give voters the feel of an assembly elections and select a better alternative.
The method of directly taking on the Sena clan head on also is in a way cornering the regional outfit which is threatening to withdraw from the state govt which might reduce it to a minority. Nevertheless, CM too met with leaders of Jain and traditional Gujarati community who were slightly upset with the demonetisation policy which displays the utter seriousness in engaging in the polls. CM Fadnavis has always belonged to the anti Sena camp of the BJP and by winning the BMC it will stop those intermittent pricking by the Sena in Mantralaya and also smoothen governance overall as BMC forms one core dimension of a multitudinous complex system of many bodies. Perhaps the eminent threat to withdraw support will go forever and this will further give impetus to the BJP in making its hold over the state like MP or Chattisgarh.
With Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut corroding the past and adding Sena ministers are on a notice period, Fadnavis said, “We don’t work on notice. Those who are putting us on notice are not taken seriously in their own party and we too don’t take them seriously.” His response high lighted the reluctance of Senas own ministers to leave power and so it made him even more imperative to channelise the frustration in lieu with the state govt to very foundations of Shiv Sena power in form of the BMC.
With both the sides boxing each other in a slowly turning personality based battle, the Sena leadership in the form of Uddhav Thackeray is dwarfed by CM and his active campaign participation. Sena is fighting for relevance it’s a matter of time before another regional outfit may face an impending political extinction.