Mumbai civic body polls: Shiv Sena on top, BJP makes big gains

Not only did it underline the continued resurgence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the most potent force in the state’s and country’s politics, it also signalled a rebound of the Shiv Sena, the other saffron party.

As it put up a sterling performance in civic polls across Maharashtra including the cash-rich BMC, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said that BJP’s victory resulted from a vote for transparency and demonetisation.

Retaining the 227-member BMC is vital for the Shiv Sena as the city has been its political heartland since its formation in 1966.

The BJP, which rules Maharashtra in coalition with the Shiv Sena but was unable to reach a poll understanding with the Mumbai-centric regional party, did very well in the state civic elections as a whole. Except for Pankaja Munde offering to resign for poor show of her party in Parali, Beed (ZP elections), overall the party has made inroads into bastions of Congress-NCP, keeping their own Nagpur municipal corporation to themselves. This turned out to be much closer to the final results that came out yesterday – with a margin of -6 seats in the case of Sena and just +2 seats in BJP’s case.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena declined from 28 to 7 whereas Samajwadi Party won six seats. The Sena, humiliated to have unimportant ministries in the state, will want better portfolios, which the BJP will be loath to give and in turn, the BJP will demand leadership of important committees in the civic body, where the real power lies. Maharashtra, particularly Mumbai, has about 27 per cent purvanchali (eastern UP) vote, and evidently they appear to have sided with the BJP in Mumbai.

In Nashik, it was BJP again who couldn’t defeat Shiv Sena in Mumbai but here and won over 55 seats.

In order to prevent last minute luring of voters, Mumbai Police also conducted combing operations and checked vehicles with the help of flying squads of the state Election Commission.

Unfazed by the BJP breaching its citadel of Mumbai by winning 82 seats in the BMC polls, the Shiv Sena today asserted that the civic body’s mayor will be from their party and accused its estranged ally of using deceitful means to destabilise them. Marathi-dominated Sewri and Byculla Assembly constituencies too witnessed Sena wins. What should embolden Sena is the public’s rejection of narrow regional sentiment mirrored in the marginalisation of Raj Thackeray. “No doubt we had an aggressive campaign against each other during the BMC polls, but I don’t think the Shiv Sena will quit the government”.

The two parties will go on play acting of being angry and disillusioned with each other and then come back together saying “it was the verdict of the people!” The NCP is also losing ground. “We will do so soon”, Thackeray said, while addressing reporters.