With India’s richest municipal corporation, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), elections round the corner, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of the Maharashtra Assembly Ashish Shelar talks to The Hindu about its estranged relationship with the Shiv Sena and why it needs a reality check. He is confident of the BJP getting a clear majority this time and says the Sena has shown its defeat in the civic body polls by adding nine new wards. Excerpts:
You are appointed the head of the election management committee, how would you describe your role and responsibilities
The BJP does not work in individual capacity, our strength is in collective leadership. For the election, our face is Honourable Devendra Fadnavisji, organisationally our head is Mangal Prabhat Lodhaji and the election committee has many sub committees. I will play a key role to see that things go in the right direction as we want to take everyone along on the narrative which we have decided and the result we want is victory. Compared to the last elections, we know where we are weak. We have boosted our organisational strength more at the booth level in the city.
You talk about building a narrative, what exactly are you referring to?
Today the Sena is talking about environmental issues, but they haven’t even been able to stop illegal burning of wires in Dharavi which generate poisonous gases. They are busy painting a rosy picture about environmental issues of tomorrow but today humans have no access to proper medicines in the civic hospitals but they want to spend money on penguins (in the Byculla zoo). The narrative we are building is that Shiv Sena needs a reality check and voters need awareness.
Which issues will the BJP focus on?
We have seen and gathered the information that Mumbaikars have suffered a lot in the last 25 years. It is not a small period, we have seen one particular party (Sena) heading the Corporation, though they were with us for some time, still decision-making powers were always with the Shiv Sena. Every election they divert the attention of the Mumbaikars on issues that are not important to them. However, our concern is as tax payers – whether you are staying in slums, gaothan, chawls, buildings or bungalows – are you getting good roads, do you have enough water supply, is your garbage getting disposed of in the proper manner, what is the air quality around your house. It is our duty to focus on what you are paying the BMC and what you are getting in return.
In 2017, BJP was short of two seats and yet did not stake claim for the Mayor’s post, what if history repeats itself, will you again hold the same stand?
I am confident that we will get clear majority this time. Last time also we could stake claim for the Mayor’s post but Devendra Fadnavis was just being generous. And it is this generosity which is being misconstrued by the Shiv Sena. The fact remains, in the last 25 years, Shiv Sena has never got a majority. Their maximum was 103 seats and their minimum was 76 seats. So out of 227, they never crossed 114 alone only when we (BJP) were with them (Sena) they got the numbers.
You speak about Shiv Sena never getting a majority without BJP; however the Chief Minister recently made a scathing remark of, “25 years were wasted in the alliance”
The decision of having an alliance with us was taken by Late Balasaheb Thackerayji, Pramod Mahajan, Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji and we take a lot of pride in that decision. If Uddhav Thackerayji is regretting the decision taken by Balasahebji it is his personal remark. We think Balasahebji always stood by the ideology, we cherish that moment, therefore we do not curse that time.
That is an interesting statement given the political relationship between the two parties..
If I can describe it further, what should be the parameters for measuring, evaluating and reviewing the past.. We all may have different yardsticks. You see the era of 1980 till Atalji’s regime came.. what the Congress was doing was appeasing only a particular religion and everything was discussed in the favour of that particular religion, that was not secularism, it was pseudo secularism. That was the time to agitate, raise the voice against this approach. Our ideology of Hindutva was taking everyone along, so at that time (when alliance was formed) late Balasahebji responded to our call and Sena and BJP came together on all nationalistic issues, so then you cannot evaluate on what I got and what you lost. What Uddhav Thackerayji is doing now is reviewing the past on the number of seats he got, so his approach is “selfish” but ours is about nationalist gain.
