Mumbai, India

Mumbai8217;s politics has always been acutely local, but its implications has been felt on a national scale. Today, as elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC get under way, they are a reminder why the city in so many ways indicates which way India could be headed. The immensity of the BMC can be blinding. It covers a population of over 12 million 2001 Census and its budget exceeds Rs 12,000 crore, more than many a state budget. But look beyond numbers. The elections will, in the longer term, be a pointer to urban India8217;s capacity to imagine solutions to their contradictions.

The BMC has been the base from which the Shiv Sena asserted itself. And Mumbai8217;s rapidly altering demography, with the share of Marathis in the population dipping rapidly, has in past years accentuated the Sena8217;s challenge to reach further than its traditional vote bank. But as the Sena8217;s tried to grow, it has failed to democratise its party structure to hold diverse aspirations. Many of its senior members have joined the Congress, keen to find a way to capture the Sena8217;s base. Others like Raj Thackeray have struck out on their own. All this puts the Congress in competition with its coalition partner, the NCP, which likes to trade on its luxury of choice. The BJP for its part is trying to forge a post-Pramod Mahajan future. The BMC results will impact the next steps for these parties.

That political significance is really the problem. The wider canvas in which these parties operate and the unchanging options before the voter tend to overshadow the inability of the BMC to rise to Mumbai8217;s challenges. These include the failure to house the lakhs who stream into the city, to get past the politicalisation of the status of slums to give people civic amenities, and to undertake a rational overhaul of infrastructure. Mumbai has always been imagined as a city of possibilities. If it can8217;t reach those possibilities, what hope can the rest of India have?