Unlike the elections for the Lok Sabha or state assembly, those for the civic body, political pundits point out, is to be fought on the plank of the developmental agenda for the city.
As the campaign for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections drew to a close on Tuesday, the question of the city’s development seemed to have taken a back seat amid the cacophony of accusations and counter-accusations that flew between the political leaders.
Unlike the elections for the Lok Sabha or state assembly, those for the civic body, political pundits point out, is to be fought on the plank of the developmental agenda for the city. Road, water, electricity, other basic infrastructure and the work done by the corporator in his ward are looked upon as part of the electoral plank for fighting the elections.
Throughout the month-long campaign for the civic polls, the question of development of the city was addressed in rudimentary form in the manifestos of the political parties, seemed to be missing from the speeches of the senior political leaders.
During his rallies, union agricultural minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar urged voters “not to be swayed by the saffron alliance”. Similarly, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Gopinath Munde, in his speech choose to list the various misdeeds of the Congress-NCP rather than talk about development of the area and the city.
Political analyst and professor at MIT School of Governance (MISOG), Vidyabhushan Arya, analysed this trend as a sign of the political parties “treating the voters as immature. By divulging in one-upmanship and mudslinging tactics, the politicians are diverting attention of the voters from the real issues affecting the city in general,” he said.
Arya also said that in order to stop this “unconstitutional way of campaigning, the voters should choose candidates who are concentrating on the issue of development of the city.”
Commenting on the trend, civic activist Maj Gen (retd) SCN Jatar said that the question of the city’s development has been put on the back-burner by the political parties for the last many years.
“That the question of city’s development has receded from the list of priorities of the politicians can be gauged by the poor state of the city’s infrastructure. Most of the politicians are out to make a fast buck at the expense of the city’s future,” he said.
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