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Business News/ Politics / News/  Shiv Sena faces uphill climb in civic polls
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Shiv Sena faces uphill climb in civic polls

Shiv Sena faces uphill climb in civic polls

Villagers wait in a long queue to cast their votes for Zilla Parishad and Panchayat polls at a polling booth in SangliPremium

Villagers wait in a long queue to cast their votes for Zilla Parishad and Panchayat polls at a polling booth in Sangli

Mumbai: The results of the civic polls in 10 cities in Maharashtra, including Mumbai, on Thursday will be crucial for chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and Shiv Sena’s working president Uddhav Thackeray. While Chavan is trying to remove the tag of an outsider to state politics, Uddhav has the tough task of keeping his flock together.

The Sena-BJP combine controls the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) since 1994 and a defeat in the civic polls can prove to be disastrous for the leadership of Uddhav as it will start an exodus of supporters of the Sena to his more aggressive and estranged cousin Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS).

Villagers wait in a long queue to cast their votes for Zilla Parishad and Panchayat polls at a polling booth in Sangli

Joining hands with the NCP will give the Congress a better chance of coming to power in MCGM but it is not a guarantee for success, said Kumar Ketkar, editor of Marathi daily Divya Marathi. Rebellion and one-upmanship between various factions is a major obstacle for the Congress, he said.

Despite having a budget of 20,000 crore and the cash-rich Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) to plan and execute infrastructure projects for the city, the city’s infrastructure development record has been dismal.

Every monsoon, roads are riddled with potholes and several parts of Mumbai don’t receive adequate water supply. The public transport system (both suburban train and bus transport) in the city is perceived to be inadequate to cater to a population of 12 million and transport projects such as Metro railway, mono railway and the sealink are several years behind their original deadlines for completion. The nation’s financial capital is also losing jobs in the sector to cities such as Bangalore and Chandigarh, where the quality of life is much better, Chavan said.

“The division of secular votes allowed the Sena-BJP combine to rule MCGM and provided sustenance to remain as a state-level party," Chavan said.

Doubts were raised on Uddhav’s ability to lead the Shiv Sena after the defeat of the party in the 2009 assembly elections, its second straight loss.

A setback in the polls may prove to be a fatal blow for his leadership, said Suhas Palshikar, a professor of political science at Pune university. “If the Sena loses control over MCGM, it will definitely have an impact on the 2014 assembly elections as the party will start to disintegrate." Uddhav is trying to overcome anti-incumbency by fielding as many as 96 new candidates out of the 135 seats where the Sena is contesting.

Uddhav is also hoping to join hands with Ramdas Athavale of Republican Party of India (RPI) to secure Dalit votes, which the party needs as rival MNS is splitting its core constituency of Marathi manoos (son of the soil).

“New candidates are a double edged sword, they limit the anti-incumbency of a candidate if not that of the party, but at the same time the established leadership of the party in those constituency makes every effort to spoil the chances of the new candidate," said Ketkar. If Chavan manages to win MCGM and improve the party’s performance then it will definitely help him to consolidate his position but if he fails to do so there is no imminent danger to Chavan’s position as current Congress leadership likes to give a long rope to its chief ministers, said political commentator Prakash Bal.

makarand.g@livemint.com

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Published: 14 Feb 2012, 11:11 PM IST
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