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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  The shock of Lok Sabha election defeat is behind us: Prithviraj Chavan
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The shock of Lok Sabha election defeat is behind us: Prithviraj Chavan

Ahead of Maharashtra assembly elections, the chief minister is battling three terms of anti-incumbency against his Congress-led govt in the state

Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra. Photo: Hemant Mishra/MintPremium
Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Mumbai: Ahead of one of his most important political assignments—the forthcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra—the state’s chief minister and Congress leader, Prithviraj Chavan, is battling three terms of anti-incumbency against his party-led government in the state.

The 68-year-old Chavan, who has also served as a Union minister in former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet, spoke in an interview about the challenges of triple anti-incumbency, defeat of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the April-May general elections, the urban legacy he leaves behind and the political fallout of poor monsoon. Edited excerpts:

What do you think will be the big issues in this election?

While they (opposition) might use the argument of anti-incumbency, there were 10 years of anti-incumbency in the last election, and the election before that there were five years of anti-incumbency, but we still continued to win. We will stand by our record of development, record of by and large equity, social justice and communal harmony, and balanced growth in industrial sector, service sector, and also attempt to spread development in backward areas, which is quite crucial for this state.

We were hit by a number of droughts and flooding and hailstorms, but we came out with flying colours, gave a lot of money to farmers and we did not let development process slow down too much, although we had to divert our money for relief operations. So our record is quite strong.

What is the development legacy you are going to emphasize in this campaign?

We noticed you omitted saying jobs.

Industrial growth is translated into jobs. I will specifically touch upon jobs. Jobs is a very large challenge we face—any state or any country does. One-point strategy is high industrial growth. Number two is very high growth in the services sector. Of course, with economic slowdown, things have got a little bit skewed, but we are healthily growing into services sector—whether it is financial sector, entertainment sector, films, television, back offices, IT and other things…in all that we are doing, fairly vibrant growth. We have now launched a major initiative in skills for 12th pass or 10th pass children, we have a skills mission with partnerships with private sector…and introducing high technology to agriculture to create jobs and retain more people on the farms.

Other than the anti-incumbency, another problem that was not anticipated is the monsoon, which has been particularly harsh to Maharashtra, especially Marathwada. What will be the political fallout?

In the last four years, we have been hit by some calamity or the other. Drought in Marathwada, western Maharashtra, northern Maharashtra; and last year we got hit by flooding in Vidarbha, huge flooding. And early this year, we got hit with hailstorm. So we have been hit by several crises, but drought we have handled well. This is a challenge, but now we have systems in place.

What about the political fallout?

People want relief and we are sending relief to them. It is costing us development, but we have to look at the balance of it…and we have been able to sustain that because we are a large state and we have a very high GSDP. No other state can sustain this kind of hit on the budget.

Maharashtra is one of the top three urbanized states in the country. What is your urban legacy?

In Mumbai, a particular issue (is that) money is locked into land and I have tried to unlock that. A lot of money comes back to the coffers...Fungible FSI (floor space index), which we recovered money from, parking lots where we drew premium from and whatever FSI-related things—we tried to bring in transparency.

Now I am launching the township policy, cluster development, houses at cost for mill workers. Another thing I did was, I tried to tackle more difficult challenges which were not easily solvable, which people tended to push under the carpet. Whether it was the reservation, whether it was eligibility of getting free houses in slums, etc.

There are many such instances where we have tackled the problems of urban areas...people are giving us credit for starting Metros, starting monorail, freeway, east-west connectivity, the new airport.

So, urban areas should remember us, our government for huge improvement in Mumbai’s infrastructure and also other parts of the state. Network of highways are coming up; we are starting the Metro in Pune and Nagpur.

The government recently cleared reservations for Marathas and Muslims. Many see it as a populist move ahead of elections.

Whenever there is reservation or any special interest group’s concerns are to be addressed, the challenges will always come. Reservation for Marathas is a demand long overdue, but we did not straightaway give it up. We followed due process…we have done it for poor backward Muslims and poor backward Marathas; so there is a condition for creamy layer. So, yes, we have done it like other states have. There is a community which needs to be lifted to the mainstream.

What would you say about the differences that have come out in the open between the Congress and your ally, the Nationalist Congress Party?

There are differences every time we fight together. We have fought five elections together...every time there is a tension, every time people feel that they should be given more seats in the alliance, make changes, and all that happens. Ultimately, we have been able to do it the previous five times and I think we will be able to resolve our differences (this time too) unless somebody takes a very hard stand.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, one of the major things we saw was the aspiration factor, especially among the youth. How is the party looking to capture that facet in the state?

The message from the Lok Sabha election was that somehow people in the country, not the youth alone, were very angry at the UPA government…well-intentioned, pro-poor schemes (like jobs guarantee and food security) were not understood by the people.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) actions even after winning elections is about empowering the people by creating a better business environment, as opposed to the Congress’s strategy of entitlement from 2004-2014 that you pursued so effectively. Their’s seems to be a different approach altogether and most analysts argue that it is an aspirational quotient that the BJP hit with the electorate.

Youth were angry because of corruption, not so much because of inflation, but corruption. The AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) factor, what happened in Delhi (in the December 2012) rape case—the government was seen as being insensitive, although the blame then came on the state government and the Delhi state government was also ours (Congress party’s), so people were angry. The way social media allowed them to mobilize against somebody and that somebody was the party in power.

If you want to say that the youth alone caused the great victory of (Narendra) Modi, but it was more—otherwise you wouldn’t have seen the kind of margins that we lost by. It was like almost every section of the society, including the housewives for whom inflation was the cause, a neutral person for whom corruption was the cause.

Do you think it was a verdict of anger?

Yes, it was a verdict of anger, absolutely. It will not be any longer now.

The economic data for 2011-12 shows that materially we have traded up, credit for which should go to your government. The country is materially better off, and yet is angry with the government that delivered it.

The same government was voted back to power (in 2009) with a vengeance from 146 seats to 206 seats with pure development, pure growth, schemes like health schemes, SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan), RTI (right to information)—everything looked rosy. (In 2009-2014) slowing of growth rate, corruption scandals, people relating it with inflation and slowing down of global economy—all those factors added together, so people thought that the government had slowed down.

So-called phase two reforms like insurance, pensions and foreign banks could not be done.

Are you feeling that people have vented their anger, so now you will survive?

No, people have vented their anger in the Lok Sabha (elections) and they were decided on change, and then came Modi with glitzy marketing and slogans at work, a smart campaign the likes of which (had not been) seen in the country.

We get a feel which is tilted in our favour for the development that we have done.

We are close to the polls being announced. What is your sense from the ground now? Will you lead them to a fourth term?

We are trying to. The shock of the Lok Sabha defeat is behind us…we are getting a fair chance and we will do well.

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Published: 19 Aug 2014, 12:27 AM IST
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