For candidates, rules are optional ahead of polls
In Mumbai, candidates for civic elections are setting up campaign offices on footpaths and streets, ignoring traffic chaos and civic rules.
MUMBAI: Aspiring corporators, presumably model citizens, have dropped all pretence of being guardians of civic order. In a move worthy of seasoned encroachers, they are colonising footpaths and streets to erect temporary campaign offices in the run-up to the civic elections.
Edging pedestrians off pavements and blithely ignoring traffic snarls on arterial roads, candidates have, willy-nilly, put up pandals wherever they fancy. Civic indiscipline, it appears, is a prerogative shared by all political parties.
In Dharavi, for instance, four campaign offices sit plum near the intersection of 90 Feet Road and 60 Feet Road, both choked traffic arteries. Flaunting their civic immunity are the Congress, BJP, NCP (SP) and an independent candidate, whose pandals are adjacent to each other.
None of them cares that they are amplifying the traffic chaos near this critical east-west connector, even as motorists struggle to navigate the roads here after the Sion and Elphinstone bridges were demolished for reconstruction.
Local traffic police have been pleading with political parties to remove these pandals but they pay no heed.
In Chembur, MNS candidate Sudhanshu Dunbale has gone a step further. He’s set up two campaign offices – one near his own office not far from the Chembur police station, and the other in Siddarth Nagar, not 500 metres away. If the first pandal has dropped scaffolding onto the main road while occupying the footpath, the canopy of the Siddharth Nagar pandal covers an entire section of a slum colony.
The candidate’s father, Karnabala Dunbale, said with a breezy confidence, “We have taken permission from the BMC.”
It’s a refrain that’s becoming disquietly repetitive. Shashikant Bansode, Congress candidate from ward no 152 in Chembur, too says, “I have taken permission from the BMC to put up this pandal. We need to network with people and I am engaged in social work.’’
These street-side pandals are vital hubs for candidates. They are used to store campaign material such as posters and flyers; for public outreach; to stock refreshments for party workers; and for candidates to rest while on the campaign trail.
“Candidates need visibility and hence need to use the footpaths. Besides, it is impossible to rent space for such a short time,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and MLC Anil Parab. Indeed, his party’s candidate from ward 160, Raju Dada Pakhare, is enjoying all the visibility he can get from a pandal blocking pedestrians on LBS Road, a major artery in the eastern suburbs.
In Kalina, Sagun Vasant Naik of the Shiv Sena too has usurped a part of the main road leading from the Kalina military camp to Santacruz station. Mangala Vishnu Gaikwad, BJP candidate from ward 189 in in Dharavi, appeared confused when asked whether inconveniencing pedestrians was a good look prior to civic elections.
A two-time corporator, no less, Turde was categorical, “I have set up this pandal as my party workers need a space to rest.’’ She too claims to have taken permission from the BMC for her pandal.
Asked how it had allowed public spaces to be blocked all across Mumbai, the civic administration attempted to pass the buck. BMC joint commissioner VV Shankarwar, also joint chief for the conduct of the elections, says, “We give permission for political offices inside buildings. Footpaths cannot be used for campaign offices. I will convey this to the additional collector, who enforces the code of conduct.’’
Joint municipal commissioner D Gangatharan, who oversees removal of encroachments, said he didn’t have a special squad to remove these pandals. It was the job of the assistant commissioners of the local administrative wards, he said.
Social activist Anjali Damania said municipal corporators are expected to hold themselves to a higher standard. “If aspiring corporators are guilty of civic indiscipline, how can we expect them to enforce the rules?’’
Sena leader and former MP Gajanan Kirtikar said the code of conduct prohibits candidates from erecting campaign offices in public spaces. “Clearly, the BMC and State Election Commission are ineffective. Moreover, we had instructed candidates not to break the law when we briefed them on the model code of conduct.’’
Elections, it appears, are code for a free pass.
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