Only one of the 70-odd citizens' candidates who contested the civic polls this year got elected. Interestingly,the candidate is from a ward known for its low voter turnout. Makrand Narvekar,a lawyer who contested as an Independent,beat the competition by a comfortable margin of 1,293 votes to win the election in ward 227,defeating Arvind Mane of the MNS and Vinod Shekhar of the Congress,son of MLA Annie Shekhar and a well-known politician in the A ward. In a Congress stronghold what worked for us was that we could bring together the residents who form that part of the electorate that political parties have ignored for a long time, Narvekar,who was backed by My Dream Colaba,a citizens' group working in the area for three years. The verdict speaks of the anger and the dissatisfaction of the people of Colaba with the system. Incidentally,Narvekar is the brother of Yuva Sena spokesperson Rahul Narvekar and critics say this could have worked in his favour,but Narvekar disagreed. In fact that was used by the opposition candidates against me to say that I am the face of Shiv Sena and not a citizens' candidate,but the results show that citizens' have given a fitting reply to it, Narvekar said. None of the candidates supported by citizens' candidates platforms such as Mumbai 227,Mumbai Nagrik Manch and Mumbai Nagrik Satta were elected and activists and candidates from these platforms blamed the defeat on the lukewarm voter turnout. The citizensof Mumbai,especially the youngsters,are just candlelight holders and showpieces, said Adolf D'Souza of Mumbai Nagriksatta,which had nine candidates. D'Souza had been the first citizens' candidate to be elected in 2007. I am not saying that the citizens' candidate concept has not worked. We have not arrived yet. People are not ready for this. None of the 55 candidates supported by Mumbai 227,which had earlier planned on having one candidate from each of the 227 wards,were elected. Same was the case with Mumbai Nagrik Manch,which had three candidates. Akalpita Paranjpe,spokeswoman of Mumbai 227,said citizens' candidates groups need to think of a better strategy to spread awareness of the concept and the Election Commission officials need to be more vigilant in curbing underhand practices of political parties such as distribution of money and liquor,which influence votes. James John,an activist from AGNI,said the presence of multiple citizens' candidates platforms confused the voters further as to which one was better.
