Despite the Congress and NCP forging an alliance for the first time for the BMC election, the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI emerged winners in India’s richest civic body with an annual budget of Rs 22,000 crores.
“This is the victory of people of Mumbai,” Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray announced. He thanked people for showing faith in his party, which has been in power in the BMC for 17 years.
However, even though the alliance got another five years extension in power, it was the performance of the BJP and not Sena that was decisive. The Sena-BJP-RPI alliance had to tackle three major challenges — an anti-incumbency factor, the new Congress-NCP alliance and increasing influence of the Maharashtra Navnriman Sena. It was felt that the BJP’s tally of corporators will decline sharply because the MNS would take away all Sena votes in wards where that party was not in fray.
However, the BJP’s performance was beyond expectations and in fact, the party improved its tally from 29 to 32. The BJP gave credit to the alliance. “The polls have also shown that BJP-Shiv Sena-RPI alliance is the real lifeline of Mumbai. The results have shown that people rejected the politics of money propagated by Ajit Pawar,” BJP leader Vinod Tawde said.
On the other hand, though the Sena is still the single-largest party in the BMC with 75 corporators, its numbers are on decline after every election since 1997. The party had won 103 seats in 1997, which came down to 98 in 2002 and its tally reduced to 84 in 2007. The trend has continued even in 2012 with the Sena winning 75 seats.
The results have also proved disaster for the Congress. The Congress had formed the alliance based on the fact that in 2009 assembly polls figure showed that the Congress-NCP alliance was ahead of the Shiv Sena-BJP in 132 municipal wards. “Getting a simple majority of 114 seats in the 227-member BMC should not be difficult,” chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had said after the alliance was announced.
However, though the alliance worked for the NCP, whose tally increased from 14 in 2007 to 18 in 2012, the Congress’ numbers have tumbled down from 71 in 2007 to 50 in 2012.