The National Congress Party is confident of a clear-cut majority in the BMC elections. It is not hoping to seek numbers from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) because the party claims that an internal survey had revealed that the MNS popularity graph is dipping.
Party city unit chief Narendra Varma speaks to Surendra Gangan about rebels, mud-slinging and dynasty politics. Excerpts from the interview:
There had been rebellion in your party too… How are you going to tackle it?
Rebellion in our party has been the least compared to other parties. But with party discipline, we managed to convince many rebels. The rebels defying party discipline will face suspension.
Did dynasty politics lead to discontentment among party loyalists?
There had been a change of reservations of more than 60% seats of 14 sitting corporators. In such cases, relatives of sitting corporators had to be given seats as they too were active in politics.
A clear majority to any of the combines seems to be impossible in the BMC. After the tug of war between leaders of the Congress and the NCP, the possibility has declined…
The alliance will have a clear-cut majority in the BMC and we will be able to appoint our mayor. Verbal exchanges between leaders of the Congress and the NCP would not impact potentials in the BMC elections. Second, one should understand that we are fighting against each other in many zilla parishad and municipal corporation elections. In such a scenario, it is obvious that the leaders target each other.
Would the alliance seek MNS support if it falls short of the numbers?
According to a survey by a professional agency on behalf of our party, it has been revealed that the MNS's popularity has been on the decline post-2009 assembly elections. We conducted this survey in 20 wards in all political districts across the city. The findings clearly show that the party has lost its novelty and also the voters' support. The findings say the party will be restricted to 20 to 25 seats, cutting into a major chunk of the Shiv Sena-Bhartiya Janata Party votes.
Will Sharad Pawar campaign for the civic elections?
There will be a joint rally by top leaders from both the parties on February 9. Pawarsaab will address three more rallies for other municipal corporations.
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