BJP will give 40% tickets in BMC polls to youth below 35: CM

Fadnavis was participating in a conference organised by the India International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) at Worli Dome on Monday

MUMBAI: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, while discussing the city’s underground tunnel network, said it would help decongest Mumbai in the next few years. He also spoke about generating new green spaces, and on the political front, announced that 40% of the tickets in the BMC election would be given to youngsters under 35.

Commenting on the political situation in Maharashtra, Fadnavis said the BJP was in talks with the Shiv Sena to bring them back on board. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

Fadnavis was participating in a conference organised by the India International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) at Worli Dome on Monday. While elaborating on the parallel network of tunnels, he said that the Lion Gate-Chowpatty tunnel would be completed in three years while the Bandra Sea Link-BKC and BKC-domestic airport ones were being planned. “All these projects will help South Mumbai residents reach the airport in 15 minutes,” he said.

The CM held forth on his grand plans—making 50 km of the metro operational every year, converting all local trains into air-conditioned ons without increasing the fare, and introducing water taxis from Navi Mumbai Airport to the Gateway of India. “All this is part of our 360-degree connectivity plan for Mumbai and MMR,” he said. “All the projects are in various stages of implementation, and all, barring a few, will be completed by 2032,” he said in an interview conducted by Rishabh Shah of IIMUN.

BMC wards with duplicate voters

When asked whether there should be a youth quota in elections, Fadnavis replied, “Instead of speaking about a quota, I will announce that our party will give 40% of tickets in the BMC election to youngsters below 35.” Following up on this, he said that the BJP was planning to appoint two Gen Z youngsters per ward in Mumbai to monitor development works, significantly enough, “from across ideologies and without looking at their political affiliation”.

“We believe in constructive criticism and welcome people from across ideologies,” he claimed. “We are only against people with an anarchist mindset who try to demean the country’s constitutional institutions. For us, the youngsters’ ideology is not important but their ideas for society are. Twenty-eight percent of our population is below 28 years, and their participation in politics is important.”

Asked about the government’s efforts to safeguard Mumbai’s green lungs, Fadnavis said that it had undertaken major projects like waste treatment plants to ensure that the sewage generated by 20 million people was not discharged raw into the sea. “The first such plant will soon become operational,” he said. He also claimed that the BJP wanted to generate new open spaces in the city. “We have thus designed the Dharavi Redevelopment Project in such a way that there will be no development on 30% of the land,” he said.

Fadnavis said that the BJP joined hands with parties of different ideologies, as numbers were important in politics to push through the BJP’s ideology. “Prashant Kishor, for instance, has good ideas on changing Bihar but he failed to get the numbers to come to power,” he said. “Ideology is important but numbers also are to propagate that ideology. I believe that in 15 years or so, our ideology will take centre-stage in Indian politics.”