Battlelines drawn for Mumbai civic polls

MUMBAI: With the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) deciding to go separate ways, the battle to wrest control of the high profile Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) with an annual budget of nearly Rs 12,000 crore has taken an interesting turn.

Political observers believe that the run at the hustings may not be as smooth as predicted for the Congress after its seat sharing talks with the NCP failed.

With the advent of the third front, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on one hand and the Shiv Sena-BJP on the other, a multi-pronged contest is on cards for the February 1 elections.
The division of secular votes is surely going to benefit the saffron combine which is making an all out attempt to retain its strong hold over the nation's richest civic body.

The Shiv Sena-BJP has been ruling the prestigious civic body for more than a decade now. With the exit of heavyweight leaders like Narayan Rane from the Sena and Thackeray senior's estranged nephew Raj Thackeray openly criticising the leadership of his cousin, Uddhav Thackeray, Congress leaders had initially felt that the time was ripe to give the Sena a run for its money in its own den.

The Congress was already buoyed by its victory in five Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai and 16 Assembly segments in 2004 elections. 

The only one thing common among all the contesting parties, is this that all of them will have to contend with rebellion in its ranks.

However, Congress leaders feel that it is the NCP who would have to bear the maximum brunt of rebellion and the presence of third front candidates in the fray. They are of the view that Congress voters will remain intact with the party. 

"MNS will dent into Shiv Sena votes. Narayan Rane supporters have been fielded in about 40 constituencies which are considered Shiv Sena strongholds. He will work very hard to defeat Shiv Sena candidates in these wards comprising mostly Marathi speaking population from the Konkan region," he added.

Congress plans to capitalise on the efforts of the State and Central Governments towards the development of Mumbai, like the up gradation of basic amenities as well as the improvement of road and rail networks in the last two years.

"No other government has given so much hope of a new lease of life to the metropolis than the present governments. We will capitalise on this aspect during our campaign," sources said adding that the work of upgrading the infrastructure of Mumbai has already begun and results would be seen in a few years.

Mumbai Congress sources say that the party's city unit had to spend 15 days to discuss seat sharing adjustments because of the pressure of their leaders in Delhi.

"We knew that the NCP was never serious for an alliance and hence we had prepared ourselves to go alone eventually," they disclosed.

Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray addressed his party workers from Mumbai late last month to galvanise his cadre. The meeting was well attended and Mr Thackeray who made his speech, sitting on a chair for the first time, infused enthusiasm in the morale of his workers.

While Congress President Sonia Gandhi addressed a public meeting on December 23 at Shivaji Park, which was actually dubbed as a party function to mark the 121st foundation day of the Congress, the meeting was well attended and Mumbai Congress president Gurudas Kamat managed to pull off an impressive show to galvanise his city unit workers into an election mode.

No alliance with Sena after polls: Raj Thackeray

MUMBAI: Announcing the second list of his party's candidates for the civic polls here, Maharashtra
Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray on Sunday ruled out any post-poll alliance with the Shiv Sena.

However, he said he was not averse to join hands with any other party, including Shiv Sena's alliance partner Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

"Do I have any enmity with BJP?" Raj questioned when asked if he was ready to form an alliance with the party if such a situation arose after the February 1 polls to the ten municipal corporations in the state. Raj had called on BJP leader Gopinath Munde on Saturday.

MNS is contesting all the 227 seats in the Mumbai elections. In Thane, Nashik and Pune too the party is contesting all the seats.

Raj, however, evaded questions regarding last week's editorial by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in his party's mouthpiece 'Samna' where he termed Raj as 'hypocrite' and 'parasite', saying his avowed respect for Sena supremo was fake.

"I will not comment on that. Let it be a solo match," Raj said when asked to comment on Bal Thackeray's outburst.

Talking about MNS' prospects in the polls, he said that anti-incumbency factor might help his party as it was the only untested option before the people.

Political observers believe that the run at the hustings may not be as smooth as predicted for the Congress after its seat sharing talks with the NCP failed.

With the advent of the third front, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on one hand and the Shiv Sena-BJP on the other, a multi-pronged contest is on cards for the February 1 elections.
The division of secular votes is surely going to benefit the saffron combine which is making an all out attempt to retain its strong hold over the nation's richest civic body.

The Shiv Sena-BJP has been ruling the prestigious civic body for more than a decade now. With the exit of heavyweight leaders like Narayan Rane from the Sena and Thackeray senior's estranged nephew Raj Thackeray openly criticising the leadership of his cousin, Uddhav Thackeray, Congress leaders had initially felt that the time was ripe to give the Sena a run for its money in its own den.

The Congress was already buoyed by its victory in five Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai and 16 Assembly segments in 2004 elections. 

The only one thing common among all the contesting parties, is this that all of them will have to contend with rebellion in its ranks.

However, Congress leaders feel that it is the NCP who would have to bear the maximum brunt of rebellion and the presence of third front candidates in the fray. They are of the view that Congress voters will remain intact with the party. 

"MNS will dent into Shiv Sena votes. Narayan Rane supporters have been fielded in about 40 constituencies which are considered Shiv Sena strongholds. He will work very hard to defeat Shiv Sena candidates in these wards comprising mostly Marathi speaking population from the Konkan region," he added.

Congress plans to capitalise on the efforts of the State and Central Governments towards the development of Mumbai, like the up gradation of basic amenities as well as the improvement of road and rail networks in the last two years.

"No other government has given so much hope of a new lease of life to the metropolis than the present governments. We will capitalise on this aspect during our campaign," sources said adding that the work of upgrading the infrastructure of Mumbai has already begun and results would be seen in a few years.

Mumbai Congress sources say that the party's city unit had to spend 15 days to discuss seat sharing adjustments because of the pressure of their leaders in Delhi.

"We knew that the NCP was never serious for an alliance and hence we had prepared ourselves to go alone eventually," they disclosed.

Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray addressed his party workers from Mumbai late last month to galvanise his cadre. The meeting was well attended and Mr Thackeray who made his speech, sitting on a chair for the first time, infused enthusiasm in the morale of his workers.

While Congress President Sonia Gandhi addressed a public meeting on December 23 at Shivaji Park, which was actually dubbed as a party function to mark the 121st foundation day of the Congress, the meeting was well attended and Mumbai Congress president Gurudas Kamat managed to pull off an impressive show to galvanise his city unit workers into an election mode.

No alliance with Sena after polls: Raj Thackeray

Announcing the second list of his party's candidates for the civic polls here, Maharashtra
Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray on Sunday ruled out any post-poll alliance with the Shiv Sena.

However, he said he was not averse to join hands with any other party, including Shiv Sena's alliance partner Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

"Do I have any enmity with BJP?" Raj questioned when asked if he was ready to form an alliance with the party if such a situation arose after the February 1 polls to the ten municipal corporations in the state. Raj had called on BJP leader Gopinath Munde on Saturday.

MNS is contesting all the 227 seats in the Mumbai elections. In Thane, Nashik and Pune too the party is contesting all the seats.

Raj, however, evaded questions regarding last week's editorial by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in his party's mouthpiece 'Samna' where he termed Raj as 'hypocrite' and 'parasite', saying his avowed respect for Sena supremo was fake.

"I will not comment on that. Let it be a solo match," Raj said when asked to comment on Bal Thackeray's outburst.

Talking about MNS' prospects in the polls, he said that anti-incumbency factor might help his party as it was the only untested option before the people.