After local level consensus amongst all parties in the Vasai-Virar villages, Vivek Pandit won the elections. Residents want the 53 villages to be kept out of the municipal corporation ambit.
The elected candidate from Vasai, Vivek Pandit, is the deputy leader representing Shiv Sena. Maybe for the first time in Maharashtra, all parties left aside their ideologies at the local level and formed a forum, Gaav Bachao Samiti. They selected Pandit as their candidate with a clear expectation that he gets the 53 villages of Vasai-Virar excluded from the municipal corporation.
“This is a victory of the villagers. For the first time ever, people came together barring caste, class, religion and all political ideology to fight against the mafia rule. We were being forced to become urban, when we all belong to 53 villages and want to retain the rural feel here,” Pandit told DNA. A division committee has been set up and now that the election code of conduct is over, they will undertake an official visit to the 53 villages and ask for their opinion on whether they want to exclude themselves from the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation. This is yet another time that Pandit and the Gaav Bachao Samiti members will have to unite and fight for their right.
“This will be the deciding factor. People will obviously take out their anger on Pandit if he fails to deliver. We have already started working on mobilising people since this was the factor that got us all united,” said Sameer Vartak, Congress leader in Vasai.
However, coming together under the banner has not been beneficial on an individual level. The local leaders have faced flak from the state leaders for leaving aside their party ideology.
Congress representative Michael Furtado was suspended by the party for
supporting Pandit. “Yes, it is true that Furtado has been suspended for supporting Pandit.
The state leaders have issued me a letter asking me to take on the taluka responsibility. Ihad to reject because we still have to achieve our task of getting the villages excluded,”
said Vartak.
It is now obvious that there will be pressure on Pandit to deliver on the promise. He says that it is his one point agenda right now and he too would participate in the pressure group. “he government should respect the people’s verdict, else, we will go ahead with our andolan (movement) inside the assembly and we will also come out on the streets,” said Pandit.
Meanwhile, Hitendra Thakur, the former legislator against whom the campaign was undertaken, said that the andolan is short term. Pandit needs to prove himself in development work.
On the one hand the local leaders have shed their ideology, but now, the same leaders will have to think of their own prospects and ultimately toe their party line.
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