NEITHER CASTE, NOR CREED, NOR MONEY Voters forgive cash crunch, vote for BJP anti-graft theme MUNICIPAL PRESIDENTS
Amid widespread inconvenience following demonetisation, agitation over caste and general disgruntlement, the Bharatiya Janata Party won big in municipal elections in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Business Standard analyses the victory:
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took a gamble earlier this year in getting the law changed to enable the direct election of a mayor — termed president — in the state’s municipal councils.
Yet, in elections to 147 municipal bodies, this has worked in favour of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It has got 51 civic chiefs elected, beside a majority in 23 of these bodies. Fadnavis is now also using the victory as endorsing the central government’s demonetisation move. Of the 3,727 seats, the BJP won 893. The Congress got 727, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) got 615 and the Shiv Sena, fractious partner in the ruling coalition, 529. For president of municipal councils, the Sena came second with 25, the Congress won 23 and the NCP 18.
Fadnavis evidently did a good job in reaching voters, with a message that the BJP would implement its growth agenda and also weed corruption and black money. He addressed dozens of election rallies and an equal number of closed-door meetings with functionaries. And, avoided making political attacks on the Opposition.
He’s also used the municipal victory to silence other aspirants to his post. State party head Raosaheb Danve did badly in his assembly constituency; so did Women and Child Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde.
He had reason to be worried. Demonetisation was one; there were others. The agitation during August and October by the politically influential Maratha community, a third of the population, could have impacted poll prospects. It did not; Marathas showed ire at the Congress and NCP. Their stand and the subsequent reaction from Other Backward Classes and Muslims ensured a polarisation that helped the BJP.
Demonetisation and the argument that corruption and black money were eating at the vitals found takers. The NCP continues to be on the defensive from a series of probes initiated by the BJP-led government in a slew of corruption charges. Veteran leader Chhagan Bhujbal is in jail since March 14; former ministers Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare face anticorruption bureau inquiries on an irrigation scam. Party stalwarts Jayant Patil and Dilip Sopal failed to retain the municipal president's post in their strongholds. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar's initial support to demonetisation and subsequent attacks against the government did not go down well among voters.
The Shiv Sena, which tried to project itself as supporter of the poor, had criticised demonetisation. Though party chief Uddhav Thackeray BJP Congress NCP Shiv Sena Others Independents 51 23 18 25 11 19 did not address any rally, his party’s network did increase their tally from the 2011 election. Saamna, the Sena mouthpiece, rapped the BJP claims after the latter’s victory. “'Those who say people have voted BJP to power due to demonetisation are fools. If that was the case, the BJP ought to have won 100 municipal councils,'' it said.
That was also manifestation of a growing anxiety. Some in the BJP have been vocal about going solo in the coming election to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country’s richest civic body, which the two parties have ruled in a 25-year alliance. Kirit Somaiya, BJP member of Parliament who’s been targeting the Sena, has said his party would contest alone for the BMC, to end “mafia raj and corruption”. The demonetisation theme of ending black money fits with this logic, that the Sena is opposed because it benefits from corruption. It got one setback from the state assembly polls, when the BJP fought separately and became the largest party; this set of elections is another. The Sena has begun booth-wise preparation for the BMC election. Fadnavis has indicated the BJP is open to allying with the Sena for the BMC poll and to the adjoining Thane civic body. The recent victory has given him and the BJP an upper hand. The Sena is not in a mood to acknowledge such a thing.