MUMBAI: With the voting power to impact results in nearly 60 of the 227 BMC constituencies that will go to the polls soon, political parties are outdoing each other in wooing the city’s north Indian population. Parties, including the Shiv Sena which is known to have targeted north Indians in the past, are pulling out all stops in their bid to win over these voters including organising community-specific cultural and food events and roping in a popular movie star from the north.
Amarjeet Mishra, general secretary, BJP Mumbai, said, “We don’t try anything special because we know north Indians trust us. From ensuring more trains to north India to protecting hawkers’ rights, we have been standing firmly behind them even when we were not in power. The BJP has strived to ensure that the respectable bhai is used to address them instead of the derogatory bhaiya used by the likes of the MNS and Shiv Sena, and I am sure we will be rewarded.”
Over the past year, the BJP has been working on this section of voters. It has nominated R.N. Singh from the Uttar Bhartiya Sangh to the Legislative Council, arranging Chhath Puja, Baati Chokha dinners and Kajri cultural programs. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was the prominent face at all these events. He is the only CM who is serious about this community,” he added.
The Congress, which has 10 north Indian corporators in the BMC — the most for any party — is coming up with a special election agenda for the community. According to Sanjay Nirupam, the party’s Mumbai unit chief, a grand Uttar Bhartiya Sammelan will be organised on January 3. “We will be releasing our election agenda for this community at this programme, which will be attended by some top party leaders from north India,”
Both parties are concentrating on pockets in the western and eastern suburbs with considerable north Indian populations. Mr. Nirupam said that the BJP’s claim of dominating the north Indian vote bank is unreal. “They have been sharing power with the Sena in BMC, but could not implement the Hawker Protection Act. Taxi permits for over 12,000 north Indians are pending after this government introduced a new rule mandating the use of Marathi. The civic body could not work on slum issues, and instead put slum dwellers’ lives in jeopardy,” he alleged.
This time around, the Congress will be feeling the absence of its north Indian city heavyweights like Kripashankar Singh and Rajhans Singh. Muslims form over 40 per cent of this population, and while they are unlikely to go for the BJP, their votes are being eyed by the Congress, Samajwadi Party and MIM.
An alliance between the BJP and the Sena is yet to be announced, and speculations are rife that it may never happen. Meanwhile, the Sena is visibly shifting from its earlier sons-of-the-soil plank in an effort to present a picture of inclusiveness. The party is apprehensive that it may lose its traditional Marathi voters to the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) if it appeases the north Indian populations.
If it decides to fight the municipal elections on its own, it cannot afford to lose north Indians votes to the BJP and the Congress by adopting a hardline sons-of-the-soil agenda. In areas like Kandivali and Chandivali, the party has handed over responsibilities to north Indian leaders. It has also wooed the Gujarati trader community by taking up issues that matter to them, such as the post-demonetisation cash crunch, and has for the first time put up banners in Gujarati.
“Our agenda is of Hindutva and north Indians know that we are the only party capable of pursuing it aggressively,” said Harshal Pradhan, media co-ordinator for Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
