Its Mahayuti Vs Thackerays

By Raju Vernekar

Although it is expected to be a triangular contest between Mahayuti, Thackeray brothers and the Congress, it will be straight contest between the BJP/ Shinde Sena alliance and the Shiv Sena (UBT) / MNS combine in most of the constituencies in the election to the BMC scheduled to b held on January15.

 As many as 29 of the 227 seats for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls in which nearly 1700 candidates are in fray, will see a two-cornered a fight between the Shiv Sena (UBT)/ Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, NCP(Sharad Pawar) and the BJP/Shinde Sena.

 The BJP and Shinde Sena, constituents of the Mahayuti, are contesting 137 and 90 seats, respectively. The third Mahayuti contestant -NCP (Ajit Pawar) is independently contesting 94 seats. RPI (Athavale) is contesting 20 odd seats independently since it was not given due share in seat sharing despite part of Mahayuti.

 The Shiv Sena (UBT), led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, is contesting over 150 seats, the NCP (Sharad Pawar) 11, and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) contesting 53 seats.

 The Congress is contesting on 143 out of 227 seats in Mumbai, while the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Prakash Ambedkar, is fighting on 46 seats.

 The VBA which was expected to contest 62 seats, could not find candidates in 21 seats. Later, they fielded their candidates in five of these seats, leading to a friendly fight with Congress and other allies in these wards – 133 (Rashtriya Samaj Party), 125 (RPI-Gavai) and 116, 140 and 181 (Congress). The Congress has put up 143 candidates.

 Out of the 29 seats which will see a two-cornered fight, majority of 13 were won by the BJP in 2017 elections. While 15 were won by the united Shiv Sena, around six of them have now shifted to Eknath Shinde led Sena. The Congress corporator won at ward number 141 in 2017 has now shifted to Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT). Since the corporator shifted to Sena UBT, the party has decided not to contest it this time.

 The seats won by the BJP were ward numbers 13,14,15,16, 21, 46, 80, 84, 106, 132, 172, 226 and 227. While the corporators shifted to Shinde Sena include ward number 6, 11, 12, 18, 115 and 117. The wards held by Thackeray led Sena include 19, 25, 40, 128, 153, 182, 191, 198 and 203.

 The Thackeray cousins first came together on July 5 after jointly opposing the state government’s move to impose Hindi as a third language in primary schools, a decision later withdrawn. Since then, they have met during Uddhav’s birthday celebrations in July and again during the Ganesh festival in August. They have begun holding rallies in different parts of Mumbai, while BJP/Shinde Sena leaders campaigning in Mumbai threadbare.

 The Thackeray cousins are depending upon Marathi speaking voters and in some pockets on Muslim votes. The BJP is depending upon its traditional base of Gujarati, Marwadi, Uttar Bharatiya voters and core Marathi voters. Under the circumstances it seems that BJP has an edge in the neck-in-neck contest.