Mumbai will hold civic body polls in January after operating for nearly three years without elected corporators. More than 2,500 nominations have been filed for the polls on January 15 — with members of the ruling Mahayuti alliance locked in a ‘friendly fight’ in many areas. The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party is contesting on its own with candidates fielded from 94 wards.
According to a Loksatta report, the Ajit Pawar group has sparked outrage in the Opposition ranks after fielding around 23 people from minority groups. The Congress has reportedly accused the Mahayuti party of trying to ‘divide the Muslim vote’ by nominating candidates from the community. Corporators are often elected with razor-thin margins amid — with many wards seeing highly competitive, multi-party contests in recent years. In such cases, even a small swing in voters can change the electoral outcome.
The BJP is contesting 137 while the allied and Shiv Sena has fielded candidates from 90 seats. The third Mahayuti ally will take on its state-level partners in nearly 100 seats if no nominations are taken back.
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Strategic decision?
The report also indicated that the ruling coalition had urged the NCP to contest on its own as a strategy to emerge victorious in the civic body polls. The nomination of Muslim candidates would help the BJP-led alliance gain an edge over the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT). Leaders from the party have however denied claims of preferential treatment while selecting candidates — insisting that it was a “baseless” allegation.
“Mumbai is a multilingual city. While fielding candidates here, one has to consider the groups like Ambedkarites, Muslims, Christians, North Indians etc. The allegation that NCP gave preference to Muslim candidates in Mumbai is baseless,” Lokatta quoted NCP state chief Sunil Tatkare as saying.
BJP-Sena vs Thackerays
The civic body polls will also see the formerly estranged Thackeray cousins reunite after nearly 20 years. The multi-cornered contest will see the ruling Mahayuti facing off against the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi — with multiple parties contesting independently within the coalitions. Regional and smaller parties also remain in the ring, and determined to make their presence felt at the local level of urban governance.
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