No red lines, and a political free-for-all in Maharashtra civic polls

The BJP is in alliance with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in city A, while the two parties are rivals in neighbouring city B, where Ajit Pawar’s NCP has joined hands with rival Sharad Pawar’s faction to challenge the BJP. Such is the political picture in Maharashtra ahead of elections to 29 municipal corporations to be held on January 15.

This is the second round of polls after smaller municipal councils elected their local representatives about two weeks ago. The current round will be followed by elections to zila parishads. Rightly dubbed “mini assembly elections”, the urban body polls have revealed the ugly, unsavoury and unscrupulous aspects of Indian politics today. The absence of local elected bodies for the last six-seven years has also made the ongoing elections particularly appealing. The process has all the hallmarks of a third-grade Bollywood thriller. While elections are never simple due to the number of aspirants, what’s happening in Maharashtra is simply unprecedented.

It’s a free-for-all, literally. Except for the Congress, which has little stake in any of the battles, and the BJP, which aims to secure every election it participates in, every other party has partnered with every other party. It’s political promiscuity at its best. Or, rather, at its worst. Maharashtra’s three-party alliance government — comprising the BJP, Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP — hasn’t prevented any of its constituents from seeking partners outside the alliance. It will require an exceptional exercise of intelligence and memory to remember which parties are allied and which are against each other.

For example, Ajit Pawar’s NCP is challenging the BJP’s hegemony in Pune, though both parties are part of the ruling alliance. It was the BJP that helped Ajit step out of NCP founder Sharad Pawar’s shadow. Ajit and his illustrious uncle were at loggerheads. Despite this, Ajit has sought Pawar Senior’s help in challenging the BJP, which has publicly expressed regret for having an alliance with “Ajit dada”. On the other hand, Ajit dada came out all guns blazing against the BJP for its “corrupt rule”. Put simply, if A plus B equals C, in Maharashtra politics, B plus A could yield different results.

The equation between the BJP and its handpicked, home-grown Shiv Sena chief Shinde is similar. His party has allied with the BJP in Mumbai but is fighting against it in many other municipal bodies. In some municipal corporations, the SS-BJP are projecting themselves as the Mahayuti (mega alliance) while elsewhere, they are at loggerheads.

This has triggered unprecedented political infidelity. Party-hopping became so rampant that some candidates changed parties three times in one day. A case from Nashik in north Maharashtra is worth mentioning in this regard. Two local satraps loyal to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena celebrated the reunion of the Thackeray brothers by publicly vowing to “drown the BJP in the Ganga”. However, the very next day, they were found in the BJP camp promising supporters that they would finish the Sena. The candidates are like their parties. No party has demonstrated any courage in rejecting such political promiscuity.

The BJP, which once flaunted the tagline “party with a difference”, has been exceptionally welcoming. Its leadership in Maharashtra went overboard in accepting anyone from any party, depending on their winnability. In the bargain, it preferred strong local satraps from other parties while ignoring aspirants from within its ranks. Out of 29 municipal corporations going to the polls on the 15th, the BJP has fielded 337 candidates imported from other parties in 19 bodies. As a result of its leadership’s eagerness to embrace defectors, the BJP faced unprecedented anger from its own cadres. In several cities, BJP offices were attacked and ransacked, and ministers’ vehicles were blackened. At one point, party officials responsible for distributing formal letters to official candidates had to flee as a large number of nomination hopefuls chased their vehicles. It’s worth noting that there are history-sheeters, habitual defectors and many with questionable reputations in the fray.

Equally, if not more concerning and shocking, is the complete absence of civic issues in the political conversation around the municipal elections in one of the most urbanised states in the country. No single party or leader worth his/her salt is seen raising local issues that affect urban life. This is especially painful when haphazard, unplanned urbanisation has created cities with extremely poor living conditions. Even cities such as Mumbai, which had a touch of planning in the past, are showing signs of decay. This does not find mention in the high-voltage political drama being played out there.

The current election campaign also brings out another facet of Maharashtra’s current political picture.

In a quest to record electoral victories, parties are happy to welcome lumpen and undesirable elements bereft of any political ideology and basic civility. The tradition of nurturing constituencies and building local connections appears to have been set aside for local lords who claim captive support. These satraps get political patronage in return for their support, which, in turn, results in the establishment legitimising their activities. Their idea of development is a one-point agenda: Converting open spaces for “development” that further strengthens the builder-politician nexus.

This renders the entire urban governance model obsolete. Politics has always been known for making strange bedfellows — but it never looked so perverse. The current elections in Maharashtra demonstrate the spectacularly flawed nature of the system.

The writer is editor, Loksatta