BMC polls countdown: Raj, Uddhav hit ground running

MUMBAI: The countdown for the mini Assembly polls in Maharashtra began on Monday with the state election commission announcing the schedule for 212 municipal councils

MUMBAI: The countdown for the mini Assembly polls in Maharashtra began on Monday with the state election commission announcing the schedule for 212 municipal councils across small towns in 30 districts of the state from December 2016 to January 2017.

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The main political players in the state have also started their campaign. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has started visiting shakhas — the party’s last mile organisation units — in Mumbai. His cousin and founder of MNS, Raj Thackeray, who will have to fight for survival in these polls, also followed suit to get in touch with the ground-based cadre.

The upcoming municipal council polls will be followed by elections in 10 big cities, including Mumbai, and 26 Zilla Parishads or district councils between February and March next year.

Together, the results of these polls will indicate where each of the four main political parties stands in Maharashtra ahead of the 2019 Assembly polls. As such, the state election commission’s announcement and the code of conduct from this weekend is likely to mark hectic political activity across all parties — from identifying thousands of candidates to making local alliances to win maximum seats and collecting resources for the elections.

Uddhav on Sunday kicked off his shakha visits by going to six Sena shakhas — Ambavadi, Chunabhatti, Gaothan and Kandarpada in Dahisar, and two more shakhas in Borivli — interacting with the office bearers, the shakha pramukhs, upa shakha pramukhs as well as Sena workers attached to these shakhas. During his annual Dussehra rally on October 11, the Sena chief announced he will visit all 227 shakhas of the party in Mumbai to interact with the cadre working at the grassroots.

His estranged cousin and political rival Raj, too, did the same. He started his drive from the Worli office and also visited the Byculla MNS unit on Monday. At both places, Raj kept senior leaders away and communicated directly with the grassroots workers. He reportedly said the upcoming civic elections were crucial for the survival of the party as well as the party’s voter, the Marathi manoos.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has traditionally ranked a poor fourth in local self-government polls and is hoping to expand its footprint in the state on the back of power in the state and the Centre, also began brainstorming an election strategy. BJP national general secretary (organisation), Ramlal held a day-long meeting with public representatives including councillors at the party office.

This deliberation was aimed at assessing the party’s strength in different districts and assigning responsibilities ahead of the polls.

“Ramlal ji held meetings with our elected councillors and MPs. Every elected representative will be given a task in the polls and their performance will be taken into count,” said a senior BJP functionary.

He said with the party likely to contest the polls solo, its starting challenge will be to identify suitable candidates for the job. “The BJP alone will have to put up more than 6, 000 candidates in these elections,” he said.

The code of conduct and election fever lasting for nearly five months will also translate into a slowdown in government decision-making even though promises will be made aplenty by all parties. The SEC has imposed code of conduct from Monday, which means the government would not be able to take and publicise decisions that would influence voters.

With increasing polarisation in the state following the ongoing Maratha agitations and counter Dalit and OBC rallies, these elections also have an element of unpredictability that in turn has upped stakes for all political parties.

While the ruling saffron alliance hopes that the agitation will not result in overwhelming anti-government sentiment, the Congress-NCP opposition is hopeful of taking advantage of the situation.

A lot depends on how the next five months pan out for the political players, but the electioneering has already begun.