In Hiwarkhed in Maharashtra’s Akola district on Tuesday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis made an appeal to voters ahead of the coming local polls in the state. “We have already unfurled the dharma dhwaj at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Now, we have to unfurl the saffron flag at Hiverkhed Municipal Council,” said the CM.
Soon afterwards, at a rally in Dharini in Amravati district, the CM modulated his pitch, promising to expand the health sub-centre in the area into a 100-bed hospital. Balancing between Hindutva and development — the twin pillars of the BJP’s appeal to voters in most elections across the country — Fadnavis is leaving no stone unturned to reach out to people ahead of the local body polls, which will take place in three phases starting on December 2. The first phase results will be out the following day.
With the BJP looking to build on its Assembly election sweep last year, when it won 132 seats, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently telling party workers that the BJP no longer required “crutches” in the state and was strong enough to “stand on its own”, the state unit, led by the CM, has turned its focus on the local polls. Drawing from its template for parliamentary and Assembly elections, the party is contesting on a similar war footing. This also comes at a time when the party has been dealing with friction in its alliance with the Shiv Sena led by Deputy CM Eknath Shinde.
With total domination as the party’s objective, Fadnavis has been holding four to five public rallies a day in three different districts. On Wednesday, the CM held multiple rallies across Palghar, promising 10 lakh jobs for “sons of soil” and infrastructure development in the region. In Dahanu, the CM also promised to safeguard the environment in the region, which is known for its scenic beauty. By the end of the campaign for the first phase of the polls, the CM is expected to hold more than 30 rallies covering 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats, leading a team of 40 star campaigners.
“In the BJP, every election is taken seriously. It never makes a distinction between the Lok Sabha, the Assembly, and the local body elections, which are like a mini-Assembly election. The party accords the same importance to planning and implementation. And what’s wrong with Fadnavis campaigning for these local polls? For BJP karyakartas, he is their leader and inspiration who can deliver results. At the heart, he himself is a karyakarta dedicated to the organisation,” said senior BJP leader Shrikant Bharatiya, who is part of the BJP’s election team.
“Yes, we want power to serve people and bring transformation through development in the state. Also, when a party works towards victory, it is not just counting seats. It also ensures a vote shift. Look at the number of leaders from the Congress and other parties who joined us. They came to the BJP because their supporters wanted to be part of the BJP,” said Bharatiya.
According to party insiders, the BJP needs to build a base across 355 talukas if it has to win an absolute majority in the state in the future. “If the BJP wins the local body, it also helps in driving the programmes and development. There is uniformity in governance from top to bottom. It expedites the development process,” said a leader.
Amid this thrust on the local polls and the party claiming that 100 of its candidates have already won unopposed, the Opposition has accused the CM and the ruling party of adopting pressure tactics.
“Both the Centre and the state are going out of their way to undermine the Opposition in the local body elections. Their agenda is to finish the opposition parties,” said state Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal. Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray and NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar have also questioned the alleged misuse of power in the polls.
Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi president Prakash Ambedkar said, “The local body elections are significant because their objective is to empower people in the grassroots. However, the BJP’s model is to control everything from the Centre, which defeats the objective of local politics. Moreover, institutions such as the Election Commission, which are there to monitor the process, are also silent on critical issues such as misuse of power by ruling parties in Maharashtra.”
However, not just the Opposition, leaders in the BJP’s alliance partners Shiv Sena and NCP are also uneasy about this local poll blitz. The Sena has also had problems with the BJP over the poaching of its leaders, including in Shinde’s turf of Thane.
“How can the party with a landslide victory in the Maharashtra Assembly elections turn the local body polls into a do-or-die battle?” asked a former minister from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
Said a Shiv Sena minister, “Amid such an intense fight, we have to be cognizant of the challenges. Therefore, the Deputy CM has decided to double the efforts to retain his electoral hold in the state.”
State BJP minister and the party’s election campaign committee chairman Chandrashekhar Bawankule said the Opposition was raising questions about top BJP leaders campaigning for local polls because it neither has leaders nor any agenda to fight the BJP. “That is why they pick up non-issues like vote fraud or question why BJP top leaders are campaigning in local body polls. They are making baseless charges.”
After polling on December 2, the second phase will see elections held for 32 Zilla Parishads and for 29 municipal corporations, including the all-important Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election in Mumbai, in the third phase. The dates for these phases have not been announced yet.