MLC election: BJP selects North Indian face with eye on civic polls

With an eye on keeping the support of the North Indian vote bank intact for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has tried to woo the community by picking Rajhans Singh as its candidate for the legislative Council biennial polls that is to be held on December 10

With an eye on keeping the support of the North Indian vote bank intact for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has tried to woo the community by picking Rajhans Singh as its candidate for the legislative Council biennial poll that is to be held on December 10.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has tried to woo the North Indian community by picking Rajhans Singh as its candidate for the legislative Council biennial polls that is to be held on December 10 (HT Photo)

According to rough estimates, Mumbai has more than 27% of North Indian voters, while the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has 15 million voters, making them decisive. The community leaders claim that of the 236 electoral wards in Mumbai, 184 have the presence of the North Indian voters ranging from 5 to 53%, while in 63 wards the community dominates with more than 25% voters. The community votes dominate more in the western suburbs than in the city or in the eastern suburbs. The multi-fold rise in BJP’s seats in the 2017 civic polls was owing to the support the party had received from the community.

The party, however, is pulling all the strings to ensure that its vote share from the community does not decline.

“Most of the North Indians living in Mumbai are from the eastern party of Uttar Pradesh (UP) where BJP has a strong presence. The political trend in UP has a direct impact on the sentiments of the voters in Mumbai. With the possibility of a decline in the existing vote share in the Assembly, there could be an impact felt in Mumbai. We do not want to take any chance and have been putting all efforts to keep the vote bank intact,” said a BJP leader, requesting anonymity of name.

Singh, who was with the Congress until 2019, has served three terms as a corporator and was also the leader of opposition in BMC for eight years. He was elected as a legislator from Dindoshi in 2009. A popular face among the community, Singh, unlike his fellow party colleague and North Indian face Kripashankar Singh, does not face any corruption charges. Singh was among the five candidates announced by the party on Friday for six seats slated to be elected from the five local body members’ constituencies in Maharashtra. Two of legislators will be elected by BMC corporators.

Singh is also believed to be a safe bet for the party after other community faces such as Council member RN Singh, former state minister Vidya Thakur, Sanjay Pande and Jayprakash Singh failed to make much of an impact.

“Rajhans Singh has successfully organised more than 500 sessions of chaupals (corner meetings) –the outreach programme aimed to attract the North Indian voters in Mumbai for the civic polls. The party believes that it will help them in keeping the vote bank intact,” another north Indian leader said.

Speaking to HT, Singh said, “Yogiji (UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath) has done a fabulous job as CM of UP and it will help us get the North Indian votes in Mumbai. We are aiming to win 150 seats in BMC polls. All the North Indian voters are with BJP.”

Political analyst and former Mumbai University professor Ramji Tiwari said that the trend in UP has direct connotations on Mumbai polls.

“The North Indian families living in Mumbai keep daily contacts with the rest of their family members in UP. As polls to the Mumbai civic body as well as the UP Assembly are happening around the same time, the UP trend could have a bearing on the voting in Mumbai. The North Indian votes in Mumbai are always split among various parties, though majority of them were for BJP in the 2017 civic polls. It will too early to say if BJP would be able to retain its North Indian vote bank intact,” he said.

Kripashankar Singh said BJP will be able to increase its existing tally in BMC polls. “The 50 seats in which BJP candidates stood second have North Indian voters ranging between 2,000 and 10,000. The seats were lost because more candidates from the community put up their candidature. This time we will avoid the split in votes. I do not think our seats will reduce. In fact, we are aiming to increase them sizably. I do not even think that there is any bearing of the UP trend in Mumbai polls. In UP polls, the electorate is divided in the Thakur, Maurya and Yadav castes, but when it comes to Mumbai, it is BJP versus the Shiv Sena for these voters,” said Singh, who joined BJP in July after resigning from Congress two years ago.

BJP currently has 82 members in the 227-member house in BMC. For the 2022 polls, the civic body will have an additional strength of nine members.

Yogi to hold 3 rallies in Mumbai

In its bid to woo the North Indian voters, BJP has organised three public rallies of UP CM Yogi Adityanath next month in various areas of MMR. “I met Yogiji this week and he has confirmed to hold three rallies between December 15 and 30. The rallies will be held in Mumbai, Nallasopara and Thane to reach out to the [North Indian] community voters in MMR. As Yogiji is expected to get busy with the UP elections after January, we have invited him next month. Other ministers from his cabinet also hold rallies here,” said Kripashankar Singh.