Mumbai: Shrikant Shinde, Kalyan MP from Shiv Sena and son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, has seen his wealth skyrocket by 669 percent over five years, the highest growth among candidates in the nine Mumbai-area constituencies, according to the non-profit research collective MumbaiVotes.com. Hot on his heels is his party colleague Rahul Shewale, Mumbai South Central MP, with a 619 percent increase.
“The average wealth growth of candidates across the Eknath-Shinde led Shiv-Sena is the highest amongst all parties contesting in the 9 Mumbai-Area constituencies. A typical Shinde Sena candidate saw their wealth grow more than triple (336%) in the last 5 years,” said a 14 May report by MumbaiVotes.com, which has been profiling candidates since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
The portal is part of the Informed Voter Project, which started in 2009 for Mumbai and Pune, and also regularly publishes ‘report cards’ analysing the performance of representatives and how well they are meeting their party’s promises.
For the ongoing elections, the collective has analysed and published data on the wealth growth and criminal charges of candidates from Mumbai North, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai South, Thane, Palghar, and Kalyan. It has also published an analysis of manifestos, including of all national parties, whether or not they are contesting in Mumbai.
Mumbai will vote in the fifth phase of elections on 20 May.
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Wealth growth & ‘serious red flags’
In Mumbai, the Mahayuti alliance, comprising the BJP-Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde)-NCP (Ajit Pawar), is fielding two incumbents—Shrikant Shinde and Rahul Shewale.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), and NCP (Sharad Pawar), is repeating three candidates—Rajan Vichare (Thane), Arvind Sawant (Mumbai South), and Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai North East), who earlier won on an NCP ticket but is now contesting under the banner of the Shiv Sena (UBT).
Also in the fray are the up-and-coming Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), which has put up candidates in all of Mumbai’s seats barring Thane, and the Samata Party, which is fielding at least six contenders.
Per the MumbaiVotes analysis, the average wealth growth rate for ordinary citizens has been merely 3.5 percent over the last five years. However, an NDA candidate’s wealth has grown 150 percent, which is 43 times faster than the average citizen’s.
“By comparison, the wealth of candidates from INDIA bloc alliance has grown at a 62% lower rate than NDA alliance candidates, but 16 times the rate of the ordinary Indian,” the report stated.
The report also examined the absolute wealth declared by candidates. The highest wealth accumulation is seen in BJP Mumbai North candidate Piyush Goyal at Rs 110.96 crore, followed by Shiv Sena (ES) candidate Ravindra Waikar in Mumbai North West at Rs 54.51 crore.
The two ‘poorest’ candidates are both from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)— Prashant Ramesh Ingle (Rs 2.46 crore) and Rais Doctor (2.90 crore), according to a list on the portal.
“We have come up with this analysis after studying manifestos, affidavit declaration of candidates, and extensive research,” said Vivek Gilani, founding trustee of Mumbaivotes. “The data is taken from the declared affidavits of these candidates, which has been double and triple checked.”
Apart from wealth, the website also dives into the criminal background of candidates and lists them on the basis of “serious red flags”, based on the number of charges they have faced.
“When we say serious red flags, it means murder, criminal extortion, criminal intimidation, kidnapping. Sometimes, allegations are made and charges are framed, but we have verified these to ensure they are serious enough for prosecution,” said Gilani.
Of the major political parties, Shiv Sena (UBT) tops the list of candidates with pending criminal charges, racking up 44 red flags, according to the report. This is followed by Shiv Sena (ES) and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), each with 34 red flags.
In terms of serious or violent criminal charges, which could result in prison terms of 10 years or more, VBA leads with 20 serious red flags, the report says, citing affidavits submitted to the Election Commission of India.
However, Shiv Sena UBT spokesperson Anand Dubey told ThePrint that the ‘red flags’ should be taken with a pinch of salt.
“These are not convicts,” he said. “We have transparently put up everything in our affidavits. These are no serious charges. Even if we do a demonstration, a case is filed these days.”
‘Unbiased’ manifesto analysis
The organisation analysed the manifestos of seven major parties that released them: BJP, Congress, CPI(M), NCP (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), Trinamool Congress (TMC), and CPI. While some, like the BJP and Congress, are contesting in Mumbai, others, such as TMC, are not. Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) has not released a manifesto.
Through their analysis, Mumbai Votes aims to inform voters and hold parties accountable by providing unbiased evaluations.
“The manifestos were studied through a double-blinded narrative analysis by our analysts. This was done because we all have certain biases. A double-blinded process means that some words associated with parties, like Bal Thackeray or Ram Mandir, were removed so that the analysis could be done without bias,” Gilani explained.
The narrative analysis/coding evaluated each element based on the following parameters—diagnostic rigour, clarity of scope of the promise, clear timelines, clear budget outlay, implementation plan, and commitment-oriented language, he added.
“The promises were graded using only the above parameters; not on whether the analysis panel felt the solutions being proposed were meritorious and beneficial to society i.e. their own political perspectives on the subject were not a factor in evaluation,” the report said.
Topics such as law and justice, health, human resource development, labour and employment, agriculture, women and child welfare, and the environment were analysed in each manifesto.
On agriculture and farmers’ welfare, the TMC’s manifesto had “clear directions”, the report said, but the Shiv Sena (UBT) scored low on all counts, from diagnostic rigour to clear timelines.
The report noted that the TMC and Congress performed well on the parameters of health, labour, and employment, with the BJP coming in a close second.
However, in terms of law and justice, the BJP manifesto scored poorly, while TMC and Congress did best and second-best respectively.
The report made specific mention of the Congress manifesto including “dedicated sections” on the legal entitlements and protections for various vulnerable groups, such as SC/STs and OBCs, religious and linguistic minorities, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+.
The Congress manifesto’s promises on press freedom also found a mention in the MumbaiVotes report.
“(The Congress manifesto) emphasises the need to ensure press freedom through the Press Council of India Act, and supports the withdrawal of acts tilted towards government censorship such as the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023 and Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023,” the report said. ‘While freedom of expression is also mentioned clearly by NCP, there are no specific instances provided, which reduced its scope, and diagnostic rigour.”
The NCP (Sharad Pawar), Congress, and TMC also scored well on gender issues, particularly regarding reservations for women in government jobs and Parliament.
“We have shared our study and findings with political parties, but they have yet to respond to us,” said Gilani.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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