Mumbai: Day 2 of Bandra’s Garib Nagar slum demolition drive last month saw Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya walking around and inspecting the area. Wearing a bulletproof vest and surrounded by his Z-plus security detail, Somaiya was taking in the ongoing action against illegal encroachments, terming them “Bangladeshis” and “land jihad” mafia.
A few days later, Somaiya was on the road again, security detail included. This time, however, he was removing sacrificial goats from a society in satellite town Mira Road. The animals had been kept at a housing complex on account of Bakri-Eid.
There are no in-between pauses; Somaiya has been at it, ceaselessly raising the issue of “illegal Bangladeshis” and “land grabbing by Muslims”, and writing to the authorities to take action against namaz on the roads and ‘love jihad’, among other issues.
It’s a distinct change of gear for Somaiya. Earlier known for exposing political corruption, Somaiya has now become intrinsic to the BJP’s Hindutva plank and its nationalist politics. “The party knows very well about everyone’s strengths and allocates work accordingly. Somaiya is good with data and papers, and his exposes have worked in the past,” a BJP functionary told ThePrint.
Somaiya’s journey has changed from visiting the Enforcement Directorate office to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) office, said political analyst Abhay Deshpande. “This seems to be BJP’s strategy to make Kirit Somaiya—along with Nitesh Rane—the face of Hindutva politics. Not just in Mumbai, he has been going across Maharashtra, and he is given a lot of security also for this,” Deshpande said.
Somaiya, a former Member of Parliament, has had many roles to dabble in. Once he was a crusader against corruption, and at other times a staunch critic of the Thackeray family, the latter costing him a Lok Sabha ticket when the BJP and undivided Shiv Sena contested the General Elections together in 2019. He has now emerged as the party’s face for communal politics in the state, especially in Mumbai.
As much as he is an asset to the party, he can also be an unguided missile that his own party needs to deflect at times. In any case, Somaiya has stayed in the news. Among his high points have been riling up the Opposition by alleging “school jihad” across Mumbai in April this year, facing allegations—since proved untrue—of misuse of funds collected to save decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, and a viral video scandal. That last one featured a shirtless Somaiya, kicking up a storm that even had then home minister Devendra Fadnavis saying that the matter would be “thoroughly investigated”.
“Earlier in his political career, he wasn’t very communal. Even after 2014, he did not choose a communal path, and was focused more on the Shiv Sena and Thackerays. But now with his beefed-up security cover, he goes ahead and takes up issues that are risky and communal,” political analyst Hemant Desai told ThePrint.
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The face of communal politics
Earlier this week, BMC razed a Sufi shrine in Mumbai’s Aarey colony. Somaiya celebrated this by claiming that “70,000 square feet Forest Land was grabbed in the name of Dargah. After consistent efforts of 12 months 6 visits & 12 meetings with Minister, Officials & 1 FIR yesterday Demolition.”
Somaiya said that he visited the site on 9 April this year again to talk about the mafia involved in what he alleged to be “land jihad”. On Wednesday, he wrote to the Mumbai Police Commissioner and BMC Commissioner to stop Muslims from offering prayers on the roads, citing traffic disruptions, especially on Fridays.
Somaiya has held no official position, either in the government or civic body, but has of late spearheaded a campaign against hawkers, allegedly of Bangladeshi and Rohingya origin. “He is not acting individually, but everyone in the party has a defined role. He is a senior member of our party and everyone works for the party’s benefit,” BJP leader Keshav Upadhaye told ThePrint.
Since the Mahayuti came to power in 2024 after the BJP got a historic mandate, Somaiya’s role in the party has swung towards right-wing politics. The relatively poorer Mahayuti performance in the Lok Sabha elections earlier that same year saw Somaiya telling the media about alleged “vote jihad”.
In his trademark style, Somaiya took voter data from Muslim-majority areas, and claimed that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) won because Muslims voted against Mahayuti. To prove his point, he used the case study of Mumbadevi constituency in South Mumbai where he named Muslim-dominated areas like Bhendi Bazar, Chor Bazar, and Mohammad Ali road where the MVA candidate got more votes than the Mahayuti candidate.
Last month, he jumped on the Vande Matram issue, taking on All-India All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and MP Asaduddin Owaisi who had said that saying Vande Mataram is no yardstick to prove one’s patriotism. Declared Somaiya, “If you want to stay in India, you have to say Vande Mataram.”
The ‘lone wolf’ attack by one Zaib Zubair Ansari on security guards at a construction site late in April in Mira Road, a satellite town of Mumbai, moved Somaiya to allege that a few Muslim leaders want to create “a new Pakistan”. He went on to furnish a list of schools in the vicinity of Mumbai, which he claimed were illegal and run by ‘Muslim mafia’, calling it ‘school jihad’, and seeking their demolition.
Even before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra began, Kirit Somaiya was instrumental in simulating the exercise across the state with the aim of deleting “illegal Bangladeshi voters”. “If you look at some of the urban, largely Hindu constituencies, there has hardly been a change in the number of voters, but the number of voters in some of the Muslim-dominated constituencies such as Malegaon, Mumbra, Malvani, Mankhurd-Shivajinagar, Sillod, Akola, Amravati has increased beyond 30-40 per cent, even doubled in some cases,” Somaiya had told ThePrint.
In an extension of this allegation, Somaiya has for the past few months been claiming an alleged scam regarding duplicate birth certificates distributed by various corporations in the state. Sniffing a Bangladeshi angle in this, Somaiya has demanded forensic audits and a special probe.
According to Desai, for the BJP to expand its footprint into Mumbai, they are taking help of “communal politics”; a BJP mayor atop the BMC and Kirit Somaiya on the outside is an added advantage. “During the 1992 riots, the Shiv Sena claimed they protected Hindus. Now, with this Rohingya and Bangladeshi angle, the BJP wants to make sure they look like the protectors of Hindus,” said Desai.
BJP leaders see this as Somaiya “exposing the ills in the society”. “One of his biggest strengths is the smart use of documents and available information. It proves useful when he makes his allegations, and authorities act accordingly,” an associate of Somaiya told ThePrint.
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“During the Lok Sabha elections, he spoke about vote jihad with data. And that is why he is going ahead and exposing [wrongdoing] where people are resorting to communal ways. His politics is not communal. He wants to expose illegal people on behalf of the party,” the associate said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Akhil Chitre told ThePrint, “Neither is he appointed by the Centre nor does he hold any official post at the state or BMC. So is he a super-constitutional authority? What is the state doing about it? Who is he to sit with BMC mayor and deputy Mayor in their meetings? Why are the BMC authorities listening to him?”
“I feel people like Somaiya have been sent by BJP to go and talk nonsense and create rift within the society. Is he doing it by purpose? I feel BJP wants to divert attention from real issues towards non-issues and hence Somaiya has been unleashed,” Chitre added.
Speaking to ThePrint, Somaiya said that his earlier war on corruption continues, but he has shifted focus from financial corruption to criminal corruption. “Both the things are same in a way. In 2024, I exposed the design of ‘vote jihad’ in Mumbai, the financial support of hundreds of crores in benami ways, and the design to change Mumbai demographically. The aggression in the Muslim community against Hindus is why it is important to talk about this ‘vote jihad’, and why the action against Bangladeshis started,” he said.
“‘Vote jihad’ is used in Maharashtra by Congress and Uddhav Sena and their allies, which can’t be tolerated,” he added.
Corruption Crusader
A chartered accountant with a PhD from Mumbai University in Business Policy and Administration, Somaiya has chosen to focus his brand of politics on investigating rival politicians on the financial front. For the past one decade, Somaiya was tasked keeping tabs on political corruption. He was focused on exposing the late Ajit Pawar, Sunil Tatkare, Narayan Rane (when he was in Congress), Kripashankar Singh, and Hassan Mushrif. Somaiya has also been one of the strongest critics of the undivided Shiv Sena, the Thackeray family in particular. He continues to oppose Uddhav Thackeray.
Somaiya had developed a sort of modus operandi: file Right To Information requests and gather documents to prove an allegation, followed by a press conference, or as nowadays, video releases on social media. He would then file an official complaint with the authorities.
Targeted persons eventually joined the BJP, and Somaiya’s cause would fade away. “That seemed to be their strategy. The only way out of Somaiya’s allegations was to somehow join the BJP; it worked for the party. He is good at pressure politics,” said Deshpande.
During the 2024 elections, media often had asked him how those he accused of corruption became part of the Mahayuti. There has been a compromise, was Somaiya’s usual answer, those persons have been warned to not repeat such things in future, and will have to contest whatever cases are against them.
“Now those who Somaiya accused of corruption are either part of the BJP or their allies. That is why it seems the party wants him focus on right-wing politics, which involves risk. But Somaiya is a risk taker,” Desai said.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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