Sans Sena, BJP fails to make much noise

The half-hearted response in Maharashtra to the BJP and other parties’ call for a nationwide Bharat bandh to protest diesel price hike, foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and cap in subsidised LPG cylinders has failed to give the saffron party the political mileage it was pinning its hopes on.

At the end of the day, top BJP leaders admitted, candidly, that the party cannot display its might on the streets of Mumbai without Shiv Sena’s support.

Apart from a symbolic protest, which was driven by local MLAs in their respective constituencies, the BJP failed to make any overall impact in the country’s commercial capital.

Vinod Tawde, leader of the opposition in the state legislative council, said, “We failed to make the expected mark in Mumbai, Pune, Thane. However, the response to the bandh was good in some parts of Vidarbha, Marathwada and north Maharashtra.”

In western Maharashtra — the NCP’s stronghold — the bandh wore a lacklustre look.

The party owed their success in Nagpur, Nashik and Jalgaon to traders who downed their shutters and marched to the streets.

At Pune, the party’s unit decided to exempt itself from demonstrations in light of the Ganpati festival. However, MLAs and MLCs in Mumbai took the lead to enforce the bandh with the help of local supporters in areas like Borivli, Vile Parle, Mumbadevi, Ghatkopar and Mulund.

Gopinath Munde, the party’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, said, “The FDI and price hike are two issues weighing heavy on the minds of the people. Almost 50% of those who could not come out on the streets to participate in the demonstrations because of the Ganesh festival are bound to support our cause.”

After assessing the bandh, the core committee of the BJP arrived at the conclusion that “the people in general across the sections are still not able to apprehend the actual impact of the FDI in retail sector in their daily life. As a result, they are not associating with the bandh call.”

A senior party leader said, “Our urban voters who are used to the mall culture and multinational companies jobs are debating over what’s wrong with FDI in retail, about how it is going to affect their lives.”

Munde said the party will take its campaign against the FDI to several districts to create awareness among the people about its ‘evils’.