Fadnavis, Goyal in BJP team to devise BMC poll strategy

The BJP has set up an informal group under chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union power minister Piyush Goyal to devise a strategy to win the Mumbai civic polls slated to be held in February 2017

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set up an informal group under chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union power minister Piyush Goyal to devise a strategy to win the Mumbai civic polls slated to be held in February 2017.

The BJP leadership is keen to win the elections to the civic body, which governs India’s financial capital and has an annual budget of Rs37,000 crore this year. The election to the BMC — the Shiv Sena’s strongpoint — is being seen in political circles as a ‘make or break’ moment for the uneasy saffron alliance. While there are no visible signs of a strong opposition, the two alliance partners are locked in a bitter tussle to win the civic body on their own.

“The group has been set up to assess the ground situation and prepare an overall strategy ahead of the polls. We need to know where the party stands, how many seats we can contest,” said a senior party functionary. The group, which includes city chief Ashish Shelar, education minister Vinod Tawde (who is also guardian minister for Mumbai suburbs), housing minister Prakash Mehta, senior legislators from the city Raj Purohit and Mangal Prabhat Lodha and national general secretary and North Central Mumbai MP Poonam Mahajan, held its first meeting last month.

The Shiv Sena has been ruling the BMC in alliance with the BJP for about two decades but the BJP is keen on wresting it from its ally or at least increasing its footprint in the civic body, where it now plays second fiddle to the Sena.

Goyal, seen as among the BJP’s best-performing central ministers, hails from Mumbai (Matunga) and played a key role in drafting the campaign strategy for Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the 2014 polls, including the social media outreach. He is also known to have good relations with corporate houses.

The presence of Mahajan and Goyal, seen as representatives of the national leadership, is an indicator that the BJP top brass does not want to leave anything to chance for these civic polls.

“The Mumbai civic polls are being seen as an indicator of what can happen in the 2019 elections. So instead of just relying on a city unit, a collective leadership will take calls on everything for the polls,” said a source.

During the last elections, the BJP had contested only 70 of the 288 seats in the BMC, with the remaining being contested by ally Shiv Sena. This time around, the BJP is keen on contesting at least double the number of seats in the alliance with the Sena. The latter in unlikely to agree and the big decision that the party will have to take is whether it can afford to contest the elections solo. There is also a likelihood of the allies snapping ties if the campaigning for the civic polls takes an ugly turn.