Be it Shiv Sena or BJP, one thing is clear that India’s financial capital Mumbai has opted for the saffron — the colour with which both parties are identified. When a feud erupted in the course of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections 2017, it was expected that other competitors like the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) would reap the benefit of the rift between the two ruling parties of the state. However, Mumbaikars have not only trashed the rest including Congress, NCP and Samajwadi Party but also made their preferences clear.
While Sena has dominated the BMC in alliance with the BJP for years, this year’s civic polls have lifted the fortunes of both parties separately. For the first time in decades, both parties parted ways ahead of the elections to Asia’s richest civic body. While the BJP claimed it cannot ally with the Sena because of transparency issues in the civic body, the latter parted ways alleging the high-handedness of the saffron senior. Sena also attacked BJP’s ambitious demonetisation decision and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
As per final results, Sena has won 84 seats, while the BJP emerged a close second at 81. Congress won 31 seats, NCP 9, MNS 7 and others 14.
In 2012, Sena had won 75 seats while its ally BJP won 31 seats. This happened in the presence of Sena founder Bal Thackeray. It seems his son Udhhav has now come of the age by winning over 80 seats. Moreover, he has further undermined his cousin Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) which could win only 7. In 2012, MNS had won 28 seats in the BMC.
Both Sena and BJP may have claimed separate reasons behind their separation, it is certain that the fight was for stamping their influence across the state and particularly Mumbai.
Despite popularity among Marathi Manoos, Sena has not been able to spread its wings beyond Mumbai in decades. However, shrinking Congress and popular sentiments in favor of the “right” has provided Sena an unprecedented opportunity to capture the space, previously mastered by the likes of Congress and NCP.
Sena may not be able to make much dent into the rising citadels of BJP across Maharashtra, but Uddhav’s party can certainly occupy the Congress’ space. And it can do so only by following a path independent of the BJP.
While the Mumbai has now made clear its political choice, it would be interesting to see how the results affect the state government in which Sena is a junior partner. It is unlikely that BJP-Sena would break the state government as they won the mandate to run Maharashtra as allies.
