Bravo Uddhav! Nice guy finishes first

The Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance has managed to beat off an aggressive challenge mounted by the Congress-NCP. The people of Mumbai, despite bad roads and other complaints, have preferred to give the ruling combine a fourth successive shot at managing the BMC.

While a detailed analysis will take time, two factors stand out. First, one must give credit to Uddhav Thackeray, who rarely gets credit for his work but is blamed whenever something goes wrong. This is the second time he has led the Sena and its allies to victory. Yes, Bal Thackeray’s campaigning must have made a difference, but rousing speeches alone cannot win elections. If they could, cousin Raj Thackeray would have done much better.

Uddhav’s understated style may well be working in his favour. His speeches are bland, but that may be just the reason why people trust him more than rabble rousers who fail to deliver.

Uddhav’s attention to detail and his willingness to name candidates early and brave the rebels proved brilliant tactics. He may also have been helped by a fatal mistake by the Congress-NCP: harping on corruption. It was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. No one will deny that corruption rules in the BMC. But it is chicken feed compared to the scandals surrounding the Congress and the NCP in the season of Anna Hazare and the 2G scam. The irony was rubbed in when, just a few days before voting day, the Bombay high court found former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh guilty of impropriety in allotting land to a film institute.

If corruption is indeed an issue, then the Congress-NCP alliance had better get its act together and clean up. After all, the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections are due in about two years. For now, the momentum is with the BJP-Sena.