Just a little over two years ago, the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party decided that they would end the alliance they had forged in 1989 and would each fight the state Assembly elections on their own steam. But when the results came in, the BJP had secured only 122 seats in the 288-member house. To achieve a majority, it was forced to ally with the Sena, which had won 63 seats.
For the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections scheduled for February 21, the BJP and Sena have had plenty of time to forge an alliance. That they didn’t do so for over two years is an indicator that all has not been well between the two parties. That has been evident from Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s vehement public criticsm of Prime Minister NarendraModi and the BJP.
While the BJP has not been quite so belligerent, it has made it very clear to Thackeray that it has outgrown its role as the junior partner. That is why, as the parties attempted to cobble together an alliance for the February 21 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the BJP demanded that it be allowed to field candidates for 114 seats – more than 50% of the 227 seats in the corporation.
For many years, the BJP piggybacked on the Shiv Sena’s might in Maharashtra. It looked up to Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s leadership and supported the party through its frequent controversies. That was, until the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when the Modi wave helped BJP win 23 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, five more than the Sena.
For the Assembly polls a few months later the same year, the BJP demanded that it be allowed to contest in more seats, tearing the alliance apart. The split in votes meant that despite the clear pro-Narendra Modi sentiment, the BJP could not gain a simple majority.
The competition
Will the current split lead to the old allies losing Mumbai to the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party? It is difficult to predict how Mumbaikars will vote, since no clear leader has emerged from the Congress or the Nationalist Congress Party to counter the BJP’s narrative on demonetisation.
The Congress does have some credible faces in the commericial city (such as former minister and Member of Parliament Milind Deora), but the party hasn’t yet got its act together for the polls. On the other hand, the Nationalist Congress Party, with party chief Sharad Pawar having been humoured on Republic Day with a Padma Vibhushan, the nation’s second-highest civilian honour, may well go a little easy on the BJP.
For a metropolis that prides itself to be the business and entertainment capital of the country, Mumbai’s civic infrastructure is straining at its seams. For middle-class residents, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is associated with inefficiency, filth, potholed roads, choking traffic and the C-word: corruption.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP has promised development and transparency in the administration of the city. According to party workers across the saffron divide, the differences between the party are logistical and not ideological. Besides, under no circumstances, does either party want the Congress back in the saddle.
Perhaps the desire to control the purse strings of India’s richest municipal corporation will get them back together.
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