Mumbai, the monetary capital of India and residential to the Hindi movie business, aka Bollywood, is all set to witness a fierce political contest within the upcoming Vidhan Sabha polls. With 36 Vidhan Sabha and 6 Lok Sabha seats, Mumbai stands as a definite political area in Maharashtra, very like Konkan, Vidarbha, and Marathwada. Politicians throughout alliances, visiting TV studios for Ganpati Darshan, give sound bites that they’ve prayed to the Lord for his or her electoral success however solely time will inform who will reap the advantages of divine intervention.
The political panorama of Mumbai will be higher understood by analysing the figures from the final Lok Sabha polls. Within the earlier elections, the Mahayuti alliance, consisting of the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering and the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena, secured solely two of the six Lok Sabha seats, whereas the Maha Vikas Aghadi—the alliance of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction), the Indian Nationwide Congress and the Nationalist Congress Social gathering—took the remaining 4.
Dividing these Lok Sabha seats based mostly on their Vidhan Sabha segments, the MVA emerges because the dominant power within the metropolis. Within the 2019 Vidhan Sabha elections, the Mahayuti received 26 out of 36 seats, whereas the MVA secured solely 11. Nevertheless, as per the Lok Sabha outcomes, the MVA was forward in 21 seats, with Mahayuti trailing at 15.
Traditionally, Mumbai has been the stronghold of the Shiv Sena. However after the 2022 break up within the celebration, the query on everybody’s lips is: which faction of Shiv Sena will retain its dominance within the metropolis—Eknath Shinde’s or Uddhav Thackeray’s? Within the Lok Sabha elections, Thackeray’s faction claimed three seats, whereas Shinde’s secured just one, the Mumbai North-West seat, which is now being contested by Thackeray’s camp in courtroom over allegations of vote manipulation.
Thackeray’s faction, historically supported by the Marathi inhabitants, is now additionally courting Muslim voters. Within the Lok Sabha elections, the place Thackeray’s candidates had been fielded, Muslim votes had been transferred to his camp. Nevertheless, Thackeray is now in a precarious place over the BJP’s Waqf Invoice, which has stirred controversy. Rival events mocking his Hindutva stance have challenged him to make clear his place on the invoice. To date, Thackeray’s stance stays ambiguous, leaving room for hypothesis.
Alternatively, the BJP is concentrating on Gujarati, Marwari, and different non-Marathi voters. Over time, the celebration has inducted distinguished north Indian leaders like Kripashanker Singh and Rajhans Singh to attraction to voters from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Given the sizable North Indian group in Mumbai, the BJP has been conducting a number of outreach programmes to woo them. The celebration and its ally Mahayuti will even spotlight important infrastructure initiatives, corresponding to Atal Setu, Samruddhi Mahamarg, and the Coastal Street, to showcase their achievements throughout their tenure.
One other key think about Mumbai’s political area is Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Though the MNS didn’t take part within the Lok Sabha elections, it plans to discipline candidates within the Vidhan Sabha polls. Earlier than the Lok Sabha elections, Raj Thackeray had introduced his “unconditional help” for the BJP, aiming to assist Narendra Modi turn out to be the prime minister once more. Nevertheless, no such declaration has been made for the Vidhan Sabha elections. The political grapevine means that Raj Thackeray and the BJP may need a tacit understanding, with the MNS more likely to dent Uddhav Thackeray’s voter base.
Each the NCPs, led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, are additionally hoping to ascertain their legislative presence in Mumbai. The undivided NCP had only one MLA, Nawab Malik, within the metropolis, who has switched to Ajit Pawar’s camp not too long ago. Each the rival events are vying for a substantial variety of seats of their respective coalitions.
Jitendra Dixit is an writer and consulting editor of NDTV
Disclaimer: The views expressed listed here are these of the writer and don’t essentially symbolize the views of NDTV Revenue or its editorial crew
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