Modi, central ministers to campaign for BMC polls

Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Parrikar, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Venkaiah Naidu and Mukhtar Abas Naqvi to address rallies

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) proposes to field Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the star campaigner for the  Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s elections early next year. The idea is to project the party, which is ruling the Centre and also Maharashtra, as the natural choice to govern India’s richest civic body with annual budget of Rs 39,000 crore.

Modi is expected to address at least five poll rallies on the development plan. BJP believes that Modi, who extensively travelled Maharashtra during the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections in 2014, is best placed to lure Marathi-speaking voters, comprising 23 per cent of the population, along with the other communities.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has been successful in projecting a clean image for himself, will also campaign for the party. This apart, central ministers including Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Parrikar, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Venkaiah Naidu and Mukhtar Abas Naqvi will also address election rallies.

As a part of a comprehensive poll strategy on the lines of Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha elections, where the party won 71 of the total 80 seats, the BJP hopes to win as many seats (out of total 227) as possible to grab the coveted Mayor’s post.

The BJP has already dropped sufficient hint that it is up to Shiv Sena to continue alliance on the 50:50 seat formula or else it will go alone. The two parties have been ruling the BMC for the past two decades.

A senior BJP minister told Business Standard, “Already, plans are afoot to appoint party cadre in 12,000 booths (one booth covers at least 1,000 voters, while individual ward has a strength of 55,000 voters) across Greater Mumbai in the run-up to the election and mobilise support. Besides, the party has started holding workshops of workers in wards of the Assembly and Parliamentary segments, carrying out assessment of the work done by sitting corporators and identifying aspirants.”

Listing the BJP’s achievements, he said the party during its 1995-1999 rule in Maharashtra had completed 55 flyovers in Mumbai, and launched the Mumbai-Pune expressway and the Worli-Bandra sea link.

“The BJP has a development vision and since the Fadnavis government took over in October 2014, various infrastructure development projects of Rs 1 lakh crore have been underway in Greater Mumbai. If elected to BMC, the party will be in a position to fast-track the development of these projects,” he added.