Journalism of Courage
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s meeting with Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray at his residence Matoshree in Mumbai last Friday has created ripples in Maharashtra politics. Kejriwal was accompanied by his Punjab counterpart and AAP colleague Bhagwant Mann for the meeting, which has surprised many in the state political circles.
Kejriwal met Uddhav days after the Election Commission (EC) dealt a blow to him by recognising Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction as the “real Sena” and giving the latter the party’s name and “bow and arrow” symbol.
Sena (UBT) insiders said: “Kejriwal’s visit to Matoshree was a goodwill gesture. By extending moral support to Uddhav Thackeray, the AAP chief was sending out a message from Maharashtra to Delhi Durbar (BJP dispensation) against the rampant misuse of the central agencies to tame regional forces across the country.”
A senior Maharashtra leader said, “Don’t forget Kejriwal is a bright mind and no-nonsense politician. His every decision and action is backed by defined purpose and target.”
Barely two days after his meeting with Thackeray, Kejriwal’s deputy Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI in the Delhi excise policy case, who has now been remanded in the agency’s custody.
Apparently, Kejriwal’s decision to come all the way to Mumbai to meet Uddhav seemed to be an expression of solidarity, as the two prominent Opposition faces joined hands to step up their battle against their common bugbear BJP. It is another matter that Kejriwal and Uddhav were not known to have any close ties earlier. Their meeting has however prompted talks in the state political circles about a possible alliance between the two parties for the upcoming, high-stakes Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
Officially, the AAP has maintained that it is going to contest from all 227 wards in the BMC polls. During the press conference that Kejriwal, Uddhav and Mann addressed following their meeting, when asked on the possibility of their alliance, the AAP chief said, “At this point we discussed unemployment and other subjects confronting the nation. When the elections arrive, we will see.”
However, unlike in Delhi, where the AAP holds the reins in the government as well as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Mumbai will be a completely different ballgame for the party as the country’s financial capital is already crowded with major national and regional parties, which include the ruling BJP and Shinde Sena besides the leading Opposition players like the Uddhav Sena, Congress and NCP that form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance. There are also a slew of smaller parties in the state, which include the Raj Thackeray-led MNS, SP, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), and Republican Party of India.
With the BJP-Shinde Sena set to contest the coming series of elections together, the Uddhav Sena, Congress and NCP have also decided to enter the electoral battlefield as the MVA. Uddhav has also joined hands with the Prakash Ambedkar-led VBA. The question is, where will be the space for the AAP in this fray, even as the party has not been able to make its mark in Mumbai so far.
An IIT graduate and ex-IRS officer Kejriwal had founded the AAP in 2012. This was the same year when Sena founder Bal Thackeray passed away appointing his son Uddhav as the party chief. However, Uddhav is a little more experienced than Kejriwal in politics as he became the Sena executive president in 2005.
Although the AAP unit in Mumbai-Pune has been active since it was set up a decade ago, the party has not made much headway in the state so far.
In the last one year the AAP has been raising issues of corruption in the BMC aggressively, holding protests against the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST)’s bid to hike electricity charges, problems gripping the civic body-run hospitals or schools, misuse of open spaces, and irregularities in building of roads, among other issues. The party has demanded a rollback in the BEST’s proposed 37 per cent hike in electricity tariff, calling it the BJP’s “organised loot”.
The AAP’s Mumbai unit chief Preeti Sharma Menon has dismissed the recent BMC budget as “contract and contractor-driven” and a “set of misplaced priorities”. “The BMC presented an annual budget of Rs 52,619 crore. But beyond these large figures lies an altogether different story. More than 60 per cent of the budget for the capital expenditure remains unused and most developmental projects are progressing at a snail’s pace,” she said.
Preeti also charged that “Fixed deposits are being used to compensate for operational inefficiencies and cost escalation of an independent BMC administration. A record Rs 18,746 crore will be withdrawn from BMC’s reserve fund, which is shocking.”
The Sena had been ruling the cash-rich BMC for more than two decades, although it has been under the state government-appointed Administrator’s rule for the past one year since the term of the civic body expired in early March last year without its election being held.
By raking up the issues of alleged misgovernance and corruption in the BMC, the AAP had been positioning itself to contest on its own steam in the BMC. But amid the current political realignment, with most of the Opposition parties closing their ranks against the BJP, Kejriwal may also pitch in to help the beleagured Uddhav meet his formidable BMC challenge.
