While grappling with differences within the Mahayuti in Maharashtra, the ruling coalition’s lead player BJP seems to have got an advantage ahead of the local body polls in the wake of rising tensions in the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) camp.
Brushing aside its MVA allies’ call for displaying unity for these elections, the Congress has decided to go alone in the high-stakes Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
Speaking to The Indian Express, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Maharashtra, Ramesh Chennithala, said, “The Mumbai Congress wanted to contest the BMC polls independently. We have given them the permission to do so. We did compromise during the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections (by sharing Mumbai seats with the MVA allies) and now our local unit office-bearers feel that the civic body elections should be fought on our own strength. There’s nothing wrong in it.”
Mumbai Congress chief and MP Varsha Gaikwad has been at the forefront of party leaders pitching for a solo contest in the BMC polls. “How can Congress join hands with Raj Thackeray-led MNS?” Gaikwad recently asked after the MVA leaders held a joint rally with the MNS in Mumbai to protest against alleged irregularities in the state’s electoral rolls.
After a hiatus of more than five years, the urban and rural local bodies in Maharashtra are headed for polls in three phases during December-January. The elections to the state’s municipal corporations, including the BMC, are slated for mid-January.
There have been clear indications now that the estranged Thackeray cousins – Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray – are set for a reunion, which has fuelled discontents within the MVA comprising the Sena (UBT) and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP) besides the Congress.
On its part, the BJP dispensation under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is pushing ahead with its “Maharashtra Mission 2025-2029”.
The BJP had suffered a blow in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, when the party could win just nine seats out of 28 it contested, with the Mahayuti – which also includes the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP – getting altogether 17 of 48 seats as against the MVA’s 30 seats.
Barely five months later, however, the BJP, backed by the RSS, led the Mahayuti to a landslide victory in the state Assembly polls, which saw the incumbent coalition winning 235 of 288 seats as against the MVA’s 50 seats.
The BJP itself bagged 132 seats, its highest ever tally, with Fadnavis returning as the CM in the Mahayuti government 2.0.
Setting its sights on clinching the BMC, which has been ruled by the Uddhav Sena for decades, the BJP has made it clear that it would contest this election along with both its Mahayuti partners. As regards the polls in other local bodies across the state, the BJP has left the alliance decision to its local units based on the ground situation there.
On the Congress’ decision to fight the BMC polls alone, Fadnavis said, “Even if the Opposition were to contest the local body elections, including BMC polls, together, it would not make much difference. We are prepared for the polls.”
The CM also claimed that the Congress’s “real problem” was Rahul Gandhi’s leadership at the central level, who has “failed”, he added, to understand the pulse of the people. “Unless the Congress admits its shortcomings, take up people’s issues at the grass roots, its future will remain grim,” he said.
The BJP’s morale is also high in the wake of the Bihar elections, in which the NDA recorded a landslide victory over the Opposition INDIA bloc. Expressing confidence about the BJP’s prospects in the local body polls across Maharashtra, a party insider said, “Although every poll springs new surprises and could not be compared to another election, when the party performs well at any place, it brings a feel-good factor everywhere.”
Led by its chief Ravindra Chavan since early this year, the state BJP hs focused on “maximising” its public outreach through various programmes across the state besides inducting local leaders from the Opposition parties into its fold. This is part of the BJP’s “shatpratishat (BJP hundred per cent) plan” worked out not only for the local body elections but also for the 2029 Assembly polls.
Last month, after laying the foundation stone for the BJP’s new headquarters in Mumbai, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “ Maharashtra BJP does not require crutches. It is firm and strong on its own.” He also said, “BJP workers should double their efforts to ensure not just the Opposition’s defeat but to completely wipe them off. Even with binoculars the Opposition should not be visible.”
State BJP media cell in-charge Navnath Ban said, “In BJP there is no pause button. From top leaders down to karyakartas everybody’s contribution is valued and acknowledged. They all work collectively, keeping the organisational growth in mind.”