Opinion Urban limits

The increase and the changed contours of constituencies are in themselves indicators of how the megapolis has grown north and taken political power with it while the island city has remained a vestige of the elite with equally selective concerns.

There is hardly any difference of opinion among thinking Mumbaikars that the two successive terms of the Congress-NCP alliance government have done little to the city of 17 million people. Slogans of promising to convert Mumbai into Shanghai seem more like a cruel joke on a city which many of its residents would prefer to call “Slumbai”,what with an estimated 50-60 per cent of its population living in the filth and squalor of slums,whose depiction gave the city another moment of misplaced glory through the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. So it would not seem ironic that in a city whose well-off urban voters are known for their apathy to political processes such as elections,the outcome of the October 13 contest is expected to be decided in its shanties and chawls.

Ahead of the elections in 2004,the Congress-NCP alliance had promised that if voted to power,it would regularise all slums in the city that came up before 2000,a five-year increase from the previous cut-off of 1995 set by the predecessor Shiv Sena-BJP government. Over the last five years,the government has managed to get Supreme Court clearances for such regularisation in a piecemeal manner for specific areas and projects after the Bombay High Court had drawn a line against raising the 1995 cut-off. However,there is no word yet on a blanket extension until 2000 being approved and the Congress-NCP are expected to dangle this carrot yet again in the coming weeks. Such is the emotive appeal of this populist move that the Third Front,a conglomeration of various factions of the Republican Party of India,the CPM,CPI,Janata Dal(S),Samajwadi Party and some local parties,have gone ahead and promised to regularise slums until 2009 in the highly unlikely event of them winning power.

The issue of slums and the migrants that they are home to is linked,albeit in a roundabout manner,to the other emotive issue that is expected to hold sway during these elections. The high-pitched cries of Raj Thackeray and the violent antics of his lumpen supporters have ensured that the pride of Marathi and the primacy of the sons-of-the-soil will be central themes for all major parties even though the Maharashtrian population of the city is estimated to be only around 25-30 per cent. Some politicians are arguing that Thackeray’s MNS is not expected to meet with the same kind of success as it did in the Lok Sabha elections as the regional focus of assembly polls would dilute identity politics as all four main parties — Congress,NCP,Shiv Sena and BJP — have strong roots in the state with well-known local names leading them. With even the Congress-NCP dispensation resorting to a shamelessly extravagant move such as erecting a giant Shivaji statue in the Arabian Sea off the Queen’s Necklace,Maharashtrians in Mumbai could be spoilt for choice. But even the most doubtful of rivals admit that the MNS will certainly open its account in the assembly but would struggle to touch double digits.

The other key aam aadmi talking points,bijli,sadak,pani or infrastructure and security,are expected to have some traction with the opposition parties slamming the government record,but few are willing to bet on the kind of momentum they can generate to carry the polls. Which is perhaps why Mumbai has to continue to draw from its famed resilience and indomitable spirit to keep its wheels moving.

yp.rajesh@expressindia.com