The results of 2012 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections have thrown some surprises. The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which was earlier seen as a threat to the Shiv Sena, has made tremendous inroads into the traditional Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) voter bastions.
In 2011, the MNS had won 28 wards of the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC). The Sena, meanwhile, retained its previous number in the KDMC and the MNS had clearly snatched wards of every other party, including the Congress, NCP and the BJP. The similar trend has been seen in the BMC elections too.
MNS candidate’s from ward number 182 Virendra Tandel has attracted Muslim voters, which were the traditional supporters of the Congress. In ward number 92, MNS candidate Gita Chavan won after Muslims voted for her instead of the Congress candidate.
Similarly, the Congress candidate from ward numbers 13 and 184 suffered defeats at the hands of MNS candidates. Even at places such as ward number 97, where the party lost to the Congress, there has been a considerable increase in the party’s votes.
“This is a warning bell for both the Congress and the NCP. The MNS has harmed Sena, but in a very small manner. On the contrary to everyone’s guess, the party has successfully attracted Congress’ Marathi vote base and at many places even the Muslim vote base. Sena’s vote bank is as intact as it was before,” said a senior Congress leader on the condition of anonymity.
MNS MLA Nitin Sardesai refuted all the charges of snatching Congress vote base. “We are in the MNS and our aim is to expand our party base. If anyone is losing voters to us, then it is there lookout,” he said.
According to political experts, due to Raj’s visit to Gujarat and his praises for chief minister Narendra Modi, a section of Gujarati voters has also turned towards the MNS as an option. “Where there is no BJP to vote for, the people have chosen the MNS. This is a dangerous trend for the parties who were banking on MNS to split Sena’s vote base,” said a BJP office-bearer.
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