The BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde) Mahayuti alliance has swept the elections in most of the 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra. The icing on the cake is the historic victory in India’s richest civic body, BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation). BJP and its ally wrested control of BMC from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena.
With this, the hold that the late Balasaheb Thackeray’s united Shiv Sena had on BMC for the last 25 years has now come to an end, despite the fact that cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray’s parties joined hands after nearly two decades of bitterness.
The credit for BJP’s amazing victory goes to Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who campaigned tirelessly in each of the municipal corporations. He put everything at stake to achieve victory, and he did succeed. In short, we can say, Fadnavis is King.
His BJP-led alliance swept elections not only in Mumbai, but also Thane, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Akola, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Solapur, Latur, Navi Mumbai and in several other towns. Overall, BJP was leading in 23 out of 29 civic bodies, when last reports came in.
Uddhav and Raj Thackeray tried hard to consolidate Marathi votes and played the Marathi card to the hilt, but failed. The public in Mumbai and other cities wanted good civic governance and opted for BJP and its allies.
This was the first BMC elections after the 2022 split in Shiv Sena and it was a fight for existence for both Uddhav and Raj Thackeray. Their parties failed to get support from the public.
Both Uddhav and Raj brought in their sons Aditya and Amit Thackeray to canvass for voters during door-to-door campaigning, but failed to convince the common voters. The people of Mumbai metropolitan region have been daily facing problems related to roads, water supply, transport, education and other civic amenities.
In this election, the Pawar family also lost its hold in the Maratha-dominated towns despite the fact that nephew Ajit Pawar joined hands with his uncle Sharad Pawar. Both their parties could not convince the voters.
The Congress fought a lone battle, allying with some local parties, but its result was a dud. The less said about the performance of Congress, the better.
Overall, the people of Maharashtra living in cities and towns have sent a clear message. They want good civic governance and not useless talk about Marathi vs non-Marathi, Hindu vs Muslim or India vs Pakistan. They want to live a peaceful life and want value for money, that is being collected by civic bodies in the form of property tax and sundry taxes.
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