With a population of over 1.20 crore (2001 census) and a budget of over Rs 12,000 crore — more than the budget of half a dozen states and UTs — the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is not just another civic body in just any other city. It is the largest entity of its kind, supervising the affairs of the most vibrant and variegated city in the country. But Mumbai has its share of problems: growing population, outdated infrastructure, limited land and heavily burdened civic amenities. Although the megapolis generates revenue of about Rs 40,000 crore for the country, it does not get even 5 per cent in return for its development. It has also not been able to keep pace with the population influx. Nearly half of its population lives in over 3,000 slums. In 1976, slums were surveyed and provided with civic amenities to prevent local people from using railway tracks, roads and public places as open toilets. Since then, the deadline had been extended periodically. Today, all slums that have come up till 1995 are protected and the ruling Congress-NCP government has promised to regularise slums to the year 2000. The decision has been challenged and is pending in the high court.Contrary to popular belief, it is not slum-dwellers alone who exert pressure on existing amenities. The huge residential colonies and skyscrapers that house the middle class and the elite certainly guzzle more water and power, but it is always the slum-dweller who is blamed. The basic difference between slum-dwellers and the others is that the former, unlike the latter, actually turn out to vote. Consequently, political parties nurture slums as vote banks.By virtue of its cosmopolitan character, Mumbai’s natives — the fishermen — have long become a minority and now the ‘Marathi manoos’ is also gradually being outnumbered by communities from outside the state. In the past four decades, the Shiv Sena had politically encashed Marathi (and Hindu) sentiments to make its political presence felt in Mumbai. It had come to power in the BMC in 1985, 1992, 1995 and 2002. Having controlled the BMC uninterruptedly for the past 10 years, the party now faces its most crucial election ever on February 1, when the BMC goes to the polls. These polls come close on the heels of a raft of infrastructural development projects initiated in the city by the central and the state governments through the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), headed by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. Six months ago, the prime minister performed the bhoomi puja of the Metro Rail project and stressed the need to liberate the city from the clutches of corruption in the BMC. The Sena, in turn, accused the Congress/NCP-ruled government of sidelining the BMC in the city’s development for political reasons. It has also resorted to pasting ‘BMC’ stickers on MMRDA signboards, to claim credit for ongoing works! The Sena is certainly very aware of the importance of the ensuing polls. It has, over the last year, sustained two major jolts: the revolt of Raj Thackeray (who quit the party to form his own Maharashtra Navnirman Sena), and the rabble-rousing former chief minister, Narayan Rane, who is at present state revenue minister. Both Raj and Rane blame Uddhav Thackeray — Bal Thackeray’s son, who was made the executive president of the Sena four years ago — for their revolt and have vowed to destroy the Sena. Rane has engineered defections of seven Sena MLAs, six of them having got re-elected on Congress tickets. He is now eyeing Sena corporators. Raj, for his part, has decided to take on the Sena in these polls. As for Sena’s ally, the BJP, it has still to recover from the death of its poster boy, Pramod Mahajan, and is of little help.From all evidence, therefore, the Congress and its ally/rival, the NCP, are set to wrest power. However, since the Congress is stronger in the BMC (64 seats in a house of 227; the NCP has just 14), the former is not keen on a poll alliance. Talks on seat-sharing have reached a deadlock. Lok Sabha MP and leader of Republican Party of India, Ramdas Athavale, has formed a Third Front, comprising Dalit groups, the CPI, CPM and Samajwadi Party.The outcome of these polls goes beyond the corporation itself. It will have an impact on the state’s political future. If, for instance, the NCP emerges stronger than the Congress in the BMC, as well as in the forthcoming elections to 27 zilla parishads and 310 panchayat samitis slated for next month, it will not hesitate to call for a mid-term poll in the state. Little wonder then that all eyes are on the BMC polls.
