Mumbai: In spite of the Shiv Sena getting the highest number of seats, 84, in the 227-member Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, it’s BJP that is laughing all the way as its seat count went up from 31 in 2012 to 81.
It’s not just in Mumbai.
The BJP has done well in other local body elections and made a sweep in eight municipal corporation elections including Pune, Nagpur, Solapur and Nashik indicating that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s stated aim of bringing in transparency and development has worked.
It also proves that the controversial demonetisation by the Modi led government at the centre has not dented people’s faith in the BJP.
Thanking the people of Maharashtra for the BJP’s victory, at the party’s offices in Dadar East, Fadnavis told reporters after final results were announced that this was “an unprecedented victory, a victory for transparency.”
“This victory is due to PM Modi’s guidance and leadership and this win is dedicated to Mumbaikars. They supported our agenda for BMC. We lost 20 seats in Mumbai by a close margin,” the chief minister said.
“The BJP had a good show in Zilla parishad elections, too.” He added that the Modi magic still held sway over the people.
Sena activists were in a celebratory mood across the city but for Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, the reality is that he would have to cobble up a coalition to get the 114-seat majority in the BMC.
His estranged cousin Raj Thackeray of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena gained just 7 falling pathetically from 28 in 2012.
There is a remote chance of tying up with the Congress or NCP, with just nine seats, or other miscellaneous parties.
That would leave a coalition with the BJP, as well as acceptance of Modi, against whom the Sena led a vituperative campaign.
A Sena leader said it would be left to the leaders to ponder over a coalition.
On the other hand, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have been literally decimated in Mumbai.
With infighting rocking the Congress, senior leaders like Gurudas Kamat were sidelined and Mumbai unit chief Sanjay Nirupam took over the reins of the poll campaign.
However, after the poor showing, he has submitted his resignation.
Even in local body and municipal corporation elections of other cities, the Congress, once a dominant party, slid back miserably.
Questions are being raised as to whether the BJP gaining ground points to the party emerging victorious in state assembly elections across the country.
Meanwhile, analysts believe the shake-up in Mumbai only came about because of a better voter turnout, at 55 per cent, which is a 25-year record.
Whether it was persuasion by political leaders, activists, celebrities and NGOs, or the deteriorating civic conditions in the city, the improved turnout appears to have made a difference.
The neck and neck fight between BJP and Sena for the cash-rich civic body has also brought in a dilemma for the Sena.
The Sena continues to be an ally of the BJP in the state government and has not said if it will quit the coalition and leave the BJP in a quandary.
