With polling for 305 panchayat samitis and 27 zila parishads having ended on Tuesday, the ruling Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, which contested these elections separately, have swung into action to put up a united show in the crucial elections to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), slated for February 16.
They have launched their campaign, with many Union ministers expected to take part in mobilising voters. The objective is to dislodge the 15-year rule of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party and thereby assume control over one of India’s richest civic bodies, with an annual budget of Rs 22,000 crore.
Terming the saffron alliance rule as most corrupt, both state chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and his deputy, Ajit Pawar from the NCP, have said their parties were committed to transform Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital, into a livable city, with focus on upgradation of infrastructure, removal of traffic bottlenecks, supply of sufficient water and a single power supply rate despite multiple suppliers. “The time is opportune for a change for the betterment of Mumbaikars,” Chavan said.
NCP chief and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who played a major role in stitching the alliance, attacked the saffron combine as a communal one, also rapping them and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena for making an issue of the Marathi manoos. “We are also Marathi manoos. We will do everything for development of Marathi manoos but at the same time will not neglect betterment of those migrating to the city for livelihood,” he said.
The Congress and NCP have roped in dalit factions, namely the Gavai and Kawade factions of the Republican Party of India ( the Sena-BJP has the RPI’s Athavale faction in their camp). One promise is a world-class memorial to Ambedkar in the premises of the Indu textile mill currently owned by the state-run NTC, in north-central Mumbai, for which in-principle approval has come for the central government.
In their poll manifesto, the Congress-NCP have promised a single rate for power consumers. Currently, Mumbaikars are receiving supply from Tata Power, Reliance Infrastructure, BrihanMumbai Electric Supply and Transport, and MahaVitaran, at different rates.
