Civic polls: For local parties, it’s divide and rule

The polarisation of voters on the basis of religion, caste and language is a dark reality of Indian electoral politics.

A look at the final list of candidates for the Mumbai civic polls of all regional parties clearly show that they have divided Marathi and non-Marathi voters between themselves and are banking on the respective vote banks.

Both Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) are focusing on the Marathi manoos.

The Sena has given tickets to only four non-Marathi candidates, while the remaining 131 candidates are Maharashtrians. The MNS has fielded 213 Marathi candidates for the 227 electoral wards, and given three tickets each to Gujarati and Christian candidates and eight to Muslim candidates.

But, Sena secretary Anil Desai denied of having any biases on the basis of language.

“The candidates were decided by party chief Balasaheb Thackeray and Uddhavji. The merit of a candidate and the ability to win the election were the only criterion applied while giving party ticket,” he said.

MNS spokesperson Shirish Parkar justified: "We have given the tickets as per our strength. We have dominance in Marathi-speaking community so we are concentrating on those areas. But even in areas dominated by north Indians, we have fielded Marathi candidates. This is our ideology and we will not divert from it."

In stark contrast, national parties, such as Congress, have fielded candidates from all communities. It has given 81 Maharashtrians, 36 Gujaratis, 26 north Indians, 17 Muslim and six Christian candidates tickets for the Mumbai civic election.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which also has national presence, too has given 13 Gujaratis and 11 north Indians tickets from its total of 63 seats.

The Samajwadi Party has decided to concentrate on their strength of Muslim vote bank in the city, by fielding 38 Muslim candidates. They have given tickets to only eight Marathi candidates.

Political experts opine that these national parties cannot restrain their candidates to certain language as done by regional parties, and so have to satisfy each community by giving adequate representation.

A Congress leader admitted the compulsion of taking care of all communities.

“Their [Sena and MNS] politics is limited to the state, but we have to think on the national level. We can't give all tickets to Maharashtrians. There are other communities as well and we have to take care of them too,” he said.