BJP has decided to give extra importance to its urban legislators, mainly Mumbai-Thane, by inducting them in large numbers in state cabinet. Three out of the 10 ministers, who took oath on Friday, are from the city.
Who are the ministers?
Vinod Tawde, Prakash Mehta and Vidya Thakur.
What's the aim behind the move?
"By giving significant representation to Mumbai-Thane legislators in state cabinet, BJP wants to capitalise on it during the Brihnamumbai and Thane municipal corporation elections. BJP does not have a permanent vote bank, it wants to develop the urban community as one for long-term politics," said a political observer.
Why is focus on urban areas important?
BJP is perceived as an urban-centric party. During the Lok Sabha polls too, it got maximum vote share and MPs in urban areas than rural. "Due to delimitations, state assembly seats in Mumbai-Thane, Pune and Nashik — the industrial triangle belt — have increased. The population is shifting from rural to urban in search of employment and a better life. Urban areas elect more than 100 in the 288-member assembly," said the observer.
Ignored, until now...
"During the Congress-NCP regime, urban voters and their representatives were ignored. The government did not give them proper representatives in the cabinet and neglected their demands. Also, earlier, the cabinet was dominated by rural-area ministers. But BJP is taking care of urban voters... we want to give priority to urban representatives and their voters and issues," said a senior BJP leader.
How does BJP plan to woo the urbanites?
The leader said in the second list more urban ministers will be sworn in. "Urban voters have been with us for a long time. Most of them are educated and tech-savvy, and so we can easily reach them with our ideas. We want to bring more investment to create jobs in cities. If the issues of urban voters get sorted out by their elected representatives, then in the next election, we will further improve our seat tally from urban areas," said the leader.
"In Mumbai, we were able to break the fortress of Shiv Sena this year. The non-Marathi votes, including the upper class, voted for BJP in block, leading to defeat of many senior Sena leaders. Therefore, we decided to give equal representation to all castes and creeds. By choosing Vidya Thakur, we satisfied North Indian voters, Prakash Mehta for the Gujaratis, and Vinod Tawde for the upper class Maratha voters. We want to develop these combinations, like Congress developed Dalit-Adivasi and Muslim vote bank. It is nothing but social engineering."
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