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NEW DELHI: A war of nerves has begun between the BJP and the Shiv Sena to rule Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country’s richest civic body.
Uddhav Thackarey-led Sena has opened backchannel talks with the Congress to explore a pact that will keep Narendra Modi’s BJP out of power in the corporation. The BJP holds its cards close to its chest, refusing to approach Uddhav immediately. The Sena and BJP share power at the centre and in the state government, but fought the municipal elections separately.
Transport minister Nitin Gadkari, a Maharashtra stalwart, said it would be better if the two parties honour the mandate and stay together. The Congress, he said, wants to fish in troubled waters and drive a wedge between the two parties. “Both BJP and Sena should beware of the Congress,” he said.
In the bitterly-fought BMC elections, Shiv Sena had won 84 seats (now 87), BJP secured 82, Congress was relegated to the third position with 31 seats, whereas the NCP and Raj Thackeray-led MNS finished with nine and seven seats respectively. Besides, the AIMIM got two seats, Samajwadi Party six, Akhil Bhartiya Sena one and Independents five (of which three have now joined the Sena).
“We are not in a hurry,” a BJP office-bearer in Delhi said. “Sena also has to realise the ground situation.” The BJP is confident that the Congress-Sena alliance was next to impossible. Even a vague hint of such an alignment, its leaders feel, will be detrimental to the Congress-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh, where voting for three more rounds is pending.
The Congress saw BJP making inroads in its ‘poorvanchali’ vote base in Mumbai and its alliance with the SP in Uttar Pradesh is depending on consolidation of Muslim votes to win the state. A Sena-Congress alliance can hit Rahul Gandhi’s party on two fronts.
First, Sena’s reputation of a ‘hardline’ Hindu party will trouble it in UP. Ulema Council, with influence in parts of Poorvanchal, has already announced support to Mayawati’s BSP against the SP-Congress alliance. Mayawati has not only fielded 102 Muslim candidates but also those like Afzal Ansari who have significant influence in AzamgarhMau region.
Second, Sena has its influence among the Marathi-speaking population of Mumbai and is often at loggerheads with the migrant population, mostly from eastern UP.
The faultlines between the Marathi and Hindi-speaking population is not as sharp as it was until some years back, but aligning with Sena will give Mayawati another handle to beat the Congress-SP with in eastern UP, which votes on March 4 and 8. BJP leaders say they have proved their worth in Mumbai and will have to renegotiate the engagement with Sena, in case the two decide to come together.