BJP’s sweep, boost for Shinde, MVA’s fall—what local body polls say about power play in Maharashtra

Shinde-led Shiv Sena emerged as the second strongest party after BJP, showing that the deputy CM has cultivated an individual space for himself within Maharashtra, political watchers say,

A BJP candidate celebrates with supporters after winning the Maharashtra local body elections in Wadi rural area near Nagpur on Sunday | PTI

Mumbai: A year after it won its highest ever tally in Maharashtra’s assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dominated elections to municipal councils and nagar panchayats too, emerging as the single largest party by a wide margin on Sunday.

The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, which clashed with ally BJP at several places during the election, has also emerged strong and smug, leading in more local bodies than all three parties of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) put together.

As of 5 pm, the BJP was winning the presidents’ posts in 118 local bodies. The Shinde-led Shiv Sena emerged as the second strongest, with 58 council presidents, followed by the Ajit Pawar-led NCP with 37.

Among the Opposition parties, the Congress was close behind the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, with presidents in 31 councils and nagar panchayats, while the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) were crushed. The two parties had won 9 and 10 council presidents, respectively.

Notably, Sunday’s verdict yet again established that public sentiment is with Shinde’s Shiv Sena, and not Uddhav Thackeray’s, with the latter restrained to single-digit victory in terms of the number of council presidents it managed to have elected.

Sanjay Patil, a researcher with the Mumbai University’s politics and civics department, said that the biggest takeaway was how Eknath Shinde and his Shiv Sena have carved a definite space for themselves in Maharashtra’s politics.

“By the looks of it, it was expected that the BJP will be at the top and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena will be in the second position. But, the kind of numbers that Shinde has got beats the expectation of most political watchers. The BJP’s strong performance, on the other hand, is not surprising and is in line with the mandate it got last year in the assembly election,” he told ThePrint.

The verdict, Patil added, puts Eknath Shinde at a definite advantage for the next set of elections.

The municipal council and nagar panchayat polls were held on 2 and 20 December. The votes for all the 288 local bodies—246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats—were counted Sunday.

“In the last 20-25 years too, no party in Maharashtra has managed to get the kind of success that the BJP and Mahayuti has this time,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur.

“We were the number 1 party in municipal councils in 2017. We had 1,602 councillors at the time. Now, we have got 3,352 councillors elected. This means, 48 percent of the total councillors are from the BJP alone, which is an immense mandate from people.”

This election is being seen as a precursor to the larger municipal corporation polls to be held 15 January. Twenty-nine corporations, including key civic bodies such as Mumbai, considered to be the country’s richest civic body, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, and Pimpri Chinchwad, will vote in a single phase in the election next month. The votes will be counted 16 January.

Polls to municipal councils and corporations were delayed by quite a few years, first due to the Covid pandemic and later due to a legal dispute over political reservation and ward delimitation in local body polls. Further, elections to Zilla Parishads are also pending.

Big boost to Shinde

At around 3 pm on Sunday, as the trends were becoming clearer, a visibly confident Deputy CM Shinde spoke to reporters in Thane, calling the polls a fitting reply to everyone who labelled his Shiv Sena as being strong only in Thane.

Thane, a satellite city of Mumbai, is Shinde’s home turf.

“Some people used to say that Shiv Sena is only strong in Thane, but that’s not true. Shiv Sena has reached every home, this election has proved the same. Even in small cities, this election has helped Shiv Sena’s bow and arrow rise,” he said.

“It is eventually the Mahayuti that has emerged victorious. The BJP has hit a century and Shiv Sena has crossed half a century. Our strike rate is also very good. We fought fewer seats and won quite a few of them.”

Till the assembly election last year, all eyes were on which Shiv Sena wins in the people’s court —Uddhav Thackeray’s or Shinde’s. Shinde’s party won 57 of 288 assembly seats, while Thackeray’s party won 20, making the former a clear winner.

But, this time, Shinde needed a win not just to emphasise his dominance over the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, but also to send a message to its ally, BJP, that it has a definite space in Maharashtra’s politics and cannot be taken lightly. The party also needed to secure its position as the clear number 2 party within the Mahayuti over the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

In the Mahayuti 2.0, there has been a visible power tussle between Fadnavis and Shinde with the former having overturned several decisions taken when the latter was the CM.

The council polls, especially the first phase, were marked by a bitter battle between the Mahayuti allies, especially the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the BJP. At one point, all Shiv Sena ministers except the Deputy CM boycotted a Cabinet meeting amid alleged poaching of the party’s former corporators and councillors by the BJP.

Fadnavis had reportedly told them that the Shiv Sena too had been breaking the alliance dharma with its inductions and with certain comments by party leaders and that both sides need to stop. Shinde had expressed his displeasure to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The two parties eventually buried the hatchet and have announced that they will contest the upcoming municipal corporation elections as an alliance.

“The BJP needs Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena to diminish the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena. But going beyond that, the results show that Eknath Shinde has cultivated an individual space for himself within Maharashtra. Everyone had questions about his future, but he has strategically managed building a ground cadre, getting resources, winnable candidates and the results show the party is not going away any time soon,” Patil said.

Opposition crushed

In the run up to the council polls, while the Mahayuti parties were seen campaigning aggressively, the campaign by MVA parties was tepid. The Congress was seen campaigning actively in certain pockets such as Vidarbha and Marathwada, while the Sharad Pawar-led NCP focussed on its strongholds.

While overall the Congress did not manage to rebuild itself beyond a point after the assembly poll fiasco when it won just 16 of Maharashtra’s 288 seats, it managed to clinch some key pockets.

For instance in Chandrapur district, the Congress made significant gains, leading to BJP’s Sudhir Mungatiwar, a former state party president and a state minister, slamming his own party.

“Congress gave power to its workers here. My party reduced our power. In this district, the party’s policy gave rise to factionalism,” Mungantiwar, who has criticised the party previously too, said at a press conference.

Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar said the success in Chandrapur said despite there being a BJP CM from Vidarbha, the party has performed poorly in the region.

In Sangamner, former Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat led his party to victory in his bastion.

The opposition leaders slammed the election result, saying it was a poll highlighted by bogus voting and inordinate use of money.

Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal called the Mahayuti’s victory “a blessing of the State Election Commission.” “This election was not free and fair. The election was characterised by bogus voting, misuse of power and money. The State Election Commission’s help has been instrumental in the victory of the ruling parties,” he said, adding that the BJP’s victory is also a warning bell for Shinde and Pawar.

Meanwhile, Kishori Pednekar from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) said the poll result will have no impact on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election in January.

“Mumbai voters will become more alert with this result and vote accordingly. This election was all about misuse of power and resources, but despite that our party managed to win 435 councillors and nine council presidents, which we see as light in a dark tunnel,” Pednekar told ThePrint.

(Edited by Tony Rai)