BMC polls: When BJP and Sena changed their stripes

Change seems to be the flavour of the season. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Shiv Sena put all its weight behind the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign in Maharashtra, saying the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was the best thing to happen to Indian politics ever. Less than six months later, by October 2014, the two were at each other’s throats for supremacy in the state Assembly polls. Things became so bad that Sena president Uddhav Thackeray termed the battalion of BJP volunteers as 'Afzal Khanachya fauja' (17th century Mughal warrior Afzal Khan’s army who had swarmed Maharashtra). Uddhav had, as usual, invoked 'Maharashtrachi asmita' (pride of Maharashtra) and claimed the legacy of Maratha king Shivaji who had killed Afzal Khan. 

But once the polls concluded, both parties realised they needed each other for power in Maharashtra and after a little prodding from the Nationalist Congress Party, they reluctantly joined hands. However, the fights continued as the Mumbai civic polls inched closer. BJP demanded a larger share of the pie in terms of seat sharing as the party had won more number of Assembly seats in Mumbai. So Sena chose to break the alliance for the BMC polls, but hasn’t broken ties at the state or national level. Again, the parties have been constantly bickering, with deriding claims made by both side.

The war is being fought at all levels - in speeches, on billboards and on social media. It was therefore an interesting experience to listen to the ads of both parties back-to-back on FM radio stations in Mumbai.

The first radio jingle was in Marathi, sung in folk style, with a tutari (a traditional Maharashtrian instrument) playing in the background. The jingle claimed inspiration from Maharashtra’s iconic king Shivaji. So this has to be the ad for Shiv Sena, one would imagine.
Nope. It was for the BJP.

The next ad was in Hindi. Asking voters to vote for 'Hamari Mumbai'. And ironically, this ad was released by Shiv Sena, seeking votes as it spelled out its agenda, talking about the party's work in Mumbai. Hamari Mumbai? This, coming from a party that consistently fought and insisted Mumbai belonged to the Marathi manoos, and that outsiders have no place in Mumbai. Today, the party is using Hindi to seek votes from Mumbaikars, when their present-day ministers like Divakar Raote had insisted on Marathi signboards in Mumbai in the late 90s. Yes, Hindi - the language of North India, from where the so-called 'Afzal Khanachya fauja' came. And the so-called Afzal Khan army is now invoking Shivaji, who the Sena had claimed legacy of. The party’s name stems from Shivaji - Shiv (Shivaji) Sena (Army). See the irony?

Things got even more interesting as one heard the next ad seeking votes. This guy was telling listeners how the Sena and BJP were fighting each other and were not interested in real work which only his party was capable of delivering. This guy was Raj Thackeray - the person who has been accused of stirring meaningless controversies over the Marathi language and has been responsible for destruction of property around the state every time his activists go on a rampage (they also think it’s funny and call it khall fatyaak, which is the sound of glass shattering after stone-pelting). Raj Thackeray talking about needless fights and seeking votes on the basis of so-claimed development his party did in Nashik. How things change!

Hoardings of BJP and Congress in Mumbai. Photo- Dinesh Parab

P.S. And this is not a small P.S. Things don’t change for the Congress. They are clueless as usual, fighting each other within the party and their campaign focus is bizarre as well. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Congress' billboards in Mumbai’s posh areas spoke about how they supported farmers and landless labourers (as the BJP promised clean governance and achhe din). Today, the party’s hoardings (which are far and few between) promise clean public toilets and Mahapalika bhojanalayas which are merely modelled on the Amma canteens in Tamil Nadu.