Party poopers: MNS isn’t the only one dividing votes

The Rashtriya Aman Sena got itself registered as a party just two months ago. It called for applications from Muslim candidates across the state for 288 seats. But the only one who qualified to fight the elections is party head Abdul Bari.

This is a party with a one point agenda: to defeat Abu Azmi at Govandi. “We don’t want Muslims in our area to vote for Azmi. Even though we got his corporators elected, he joined hands with the Sena,” said Bari. He admits that his effort will eat into the Muslim vote. “Azmi is no longer confident of winning and that’s why he is standing from two constituencies, Govandi and Bhiwandi.”

The Shiv Sena has been lamenting that the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has been dividing the Marathi manoos vote, benefiting the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine as was evident during the Lok Sabha elections. But the MNS is not the only party that thrives on dividing votes.

There are over 1,035 parties registered with the Chief Election Commission of India, and many of them are ‘unrecognised’ by the CEC. (A party gets ‘recognition’ if it gets 6 per cent of the votes.)

Not all these party poopers have the advantage of being led by a name with a big legacy, like Raj Thackeray. There is a Maharashtra Rajiv Congress, for instance. This party has little to do with the Indian National Congress.

“These parties definitely try to crush the vote base of national parties. Their agenda depends on the reason for their birth. The MNS, for instance, has broken away from Sena,” said Anant Gadgil, spokesperson, state Congress party. Community factors often decide the formation and political plans of such parties.

A candidate who was fielded during the last municipal corporation elections from the Professionals Party of India explains the reasons for his selection: “The traders and other Gujaratis in the area wanted their ‘own’ person to represent them since they felt that the leading alliance in the corporation wasn’t listening to them. I was then asked to contest,” said the candidate who did not wish to be named.

Keeping track of such ragtag parties is a major headache for leading parties. So much so that last week, the Congress party sent down an emissary from Delhi to meet the small but potentially dangerous fries. They were asked to either withdraw or remain silent.

 “If a local or state election ends in a photo finish, then these parties can make a lot of difference. Even 300 votes make a difference. Only a few of these small parties are genuine. Most others are supported by bigger parties. They end up making money even if they field 5-7 candidates,” says Vinod Tawade, general secretary, Maharashtra BJP.

In fact during the last Vidhan Sabha elections, BJP’s candidate from Colaba, Raj Purohit, had to contest seven other ‘Raj Purohits’. And this after he and his party managed to push four other Raj Purohits out of the fray.

According to the CEC notification of September 16, there are only seven recognised national parties and 24 state parties, with the Shiv Sena being the only one from Maharashtra. Then there are 1,035 registered but unrecognised parties. Maharashtra has over 125 such small parties and the MNS is listed at 566.