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After helping the BJP secure a landslide win in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the RSS is all set to play an important role in the forthcoming local body polls across the state.
Unlike the Assembly polls where the contest was essentially between two coalitions – the Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi – local bodies are likely to see a multi-cornered contest. All the six parties forming the two alliances have indicated they would prefer contesting alone in the local body polls. These will be the first civic elections after the splits in the Shiv Sena and NCP.
The BJP has already started putting in place coordination among its frontal organisations, led by the RSS, and recently an extended meeting was held in Bhayandar in this regard, presided over by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
Acknowledging that the RSS will have an expanded role compared to earlier local polls, a senior BJP functionary said: “The message that emerged from the Bhayandar meeting was that the Assembly elections were a great success because of the BJP and RSS working together. And that we cannot afford to become complacent… The party needs frontal organisations (of the RSS) with a vast grassroot network.”
Recently, Fadnavis said at a press meeting that the Mahayuti government led by him is trying to ensure that the local body polls are held at the earliest, including expediting the Supreme Court process over the OBC quota matter, which has stalled the elections for the last two years. The next hearing is in the coming month.
Elections are due for all 27 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. In addition, two newly constituted corporations, Icchalkaranji and Jalna, are awaiting their first elections. In the absence of elected bodies, all municipal corporations are being governed by administrators appointed by the government.
During the previous Mahayuti government, the Opposition had accused it of delaying the elections so as to retain control over the local bodies. But the overwhelming Assembly results in its favour mean the Mahayuti is more confident about the local polls now.
Bawankule told The Indian Express that they expect the local body polls “to be held in March-April”. About the RSS role, he said: “In the Assembly polls, the Sangh along with its 35 frontal organisations was vital. In the local body elections as well, the BJP along with the RSS and all its frontal organisations will work closely and proactively.”
Bawankule added that the BJP – which is sitting pretty after winning 132 of the total 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra – “will not thrust alliances on our local units”. “We will leave the discretion to the local body.”
Highly placed sources in the BJP said alliances at the corporation level “did not work” in the past, though till the last polls, the party and then undivided Shiv Sena fought together.
Given its Assembly performance, the BJP clearly fancies its chances alone, including in the BMC. The country’s richest civic body has long been a turf of the Shiv Sena, but that was before the party split. In the recent polls, the Sena led by Eknath Shinde, which is an ally of the BJP, prevailed over the party faction under Uddhav Thackeray.
His party’s survival on the line after the Assembly results, giving it just 20 seats overall, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena has also initiated its preparations for the local body polls, especially BMC’s 227 wards. The party held a three-day meeting in the week gone by on the issue, with its leader Sanjay Raut saying that the Sena (UBT) was inclined to contest alone.
Having settled any doubts regarding his leadership of the Sena after the Assembly results, where the party won the second-largest number of seats at 57, Deputy CM Eknath Shinde has started meetings with MLAs, MPs and corporators regarding the civic polls. His main goals will be the Thane and Navi Mumbai areas.
NCP leader and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar has eyes set on Western Maharashtra, the traditional stronghold of the party along with the Congress.
The Congress may have plunged to just 16 seats in the Assembly polls, but its president Nana Patole is also under pressure from party workers to test the waters and contest alone in the civic body polls.
In the last civic polls, held at intervals between 2015 and 2018, the then united Sena had won 14 of the 27 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, Thane, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Kalyan-Dombivli, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati, Akola, Panvel, Ulhasnagar, Sangli, Jalgaon, Vasai-Virar and Ahmednagar. The BJP (with Sena support) ruled Nagpur, Pune, Solapur, Mira-Bhayandar, Dhule, Chandrapur.
The Congress and the then united NCP ruled Navi Mumbai, Kolhapur, Parbhani, Malegaon. The Congress was also the dominant party in Bhiwandi, Latur, Nanded.
In battleground BMC, for which polls were last held in 2017, the BJP had won 82 wards, just two less than the undivided Sena. Keen to keep the Thackerays happy at the time, the BJP had ensured power and the post of mayor went to the Sena.
Fadnavis is unlikely to show the same generosity should the BJP perform as well or better this time. Mumbai BJP president and minister Ashish Shelar recently said that the party’s target for Mumbai was 151 out of 227 wards.
Bawankule said a positive verdict for the Mahayuti in the local polls would serve the state well. “Having like-minded parties in local bodies, as in the Assembly and Lok Sabha, helps faster development of projects and implementation of welfare schemes uniformly.”
