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By:

Abhijit Joshi

31 August 2024 at 10:09:24 am

A Mahayuti Landslide, A Fadnavis Moment

Maharashtra’s urban voters have rewarded development over identity, cementing the Chief Minister as the state’s pivotal power-broker. Maharashtra’s municipal elections have delivered a verdict that will reverberate far beyond city halls. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), allied with Eknath Shinde’s faction of the Shiv Sena under the Mahayuti banner, swept most major municipal corporations, including Mumbai’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the nation’s richest civic body and...

A Mahayuti Landslide, A Fadnavis Moment

Maharashtra’s urban voters have rewarded development over identity, cementing the Chief Minister as the state’s pivotal power-broker. Maharashtra’s municipal elections have delivered a verdict that will reverberate far beyond city halls. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), allied with Eknath Shinde’s faction of the Shiv Sena under the Mahayuti banner, swept most major municipal corporations, including Mumbai’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the nation’s richest civic body and arguably the most hotly-contested civic body. Across the state, the results suggest that voters in fast-growing cities are prioritising delivery over rhetoric, and that Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP’s strategist and former chief minister, has emerged as the most powerful figure in Maharashtra politics today. Preliminary counts had indicated a clear Mahayuti advantage in most of the 29 municipal corporations that went to the polls. By mid-afternoon, national media reported the alliance leading in between 19 and 24 municipalities, with the BJP alone ahead in over a thousand ward seats. The Opposition comprising of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress, and the NCP factions under the MVA umbrella, along with Raj Thackeray’s MNS, struggled to match the Mahayuti’s performance. Across urban Maharashtra, the message from voters was loud and clear: governance that improves daily life trumps nostalgia, identity politics, or past allegiances. Sharp Campaigning The Mahayuti’s success was neither accidental nor purely symbolic. Analysts attribute it to a campaign sharply focused on tangible development issues. Roads, metro expansions, improved public transport, and enhanced civic amenities dominated the narrative. Even where infrastructure projects caused temporary inconvenience, citizens recognised their long-term benefits. In cities such as Mumbai and Pune, voters rewarded parties that had a record of delivery. Emotional appeals or appeals to Marathi identity, which have historically been potent in Maharashtra, largely fell flat. Mumbai, home to the BMC, was the most closely watched battleground. The alliance of Fadnavis and Shinde eclipsed the combined efforts of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, signalling a profound shift in the political centre of gravity in the metropolis. Pune, historically an NCP stronghold, cemented the BJP’s grip while Pimpri-Chinchwad and Nagpur reaffirmed the party’s organisational strength and grassroots appeal. In Nagpur, the BJP’s victories are especially symbolic given that the city has long been a crucible of party ideology and organisational machinery. Civic bodies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) including Thane, Mira-Bhayandar, and Kalyan-Dombivli reinforced the pattern. Even in Latur, where the Congress-led alliance won, and in pockets of Marathwada, where results were mixed, the BJP maintained an edge in several wards. The lesson was clear that while local leadership mattered in places, voters unmistakably went for broad-based and performance-oriented messaging. Fadnavis hailed the results as a “festival of democracy” arguing that the electorate had chosen performance and delivery over empty promises. Shinde and other allies echoed the sentiment, suggesting the outcome validated both their strategy and their claim to stable governance in urban bodies. With the win, both leaders now have to contend with high urban expectations that they will have to live up to. An embattled Opposition was naturally more circumspect. Ajit Pawar’s NCP celebrated select victories but acknowledged the broader challenge of regaining urban support. The Thackeray brothers, meanwhile, faced a harsher verdict and have now to contend with an even more ominous political future. Their over-reliance on identity politics, emotional narratives, and old political loyalties utterly failed to mobilise voters who now appear more concerned with tangible improvements in civic life. Big Implications The implications of the results extend far beyond municipal boundaries. Controlling major city corporations gives the Mahayuti direct influence over large budgets and urban policy decisions, from infrastructure projects to civic administration. If leveraged well, these victories can cement the alliance’s image as a party of delivery, providing a springboard for the BJP and its allies in future Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Conversely, mismanagement or delays in fulfilling promises could quickly erode public trust. For the Opposition parties, the message is stark. Relying on historical legacy, identity politics, or fragmented alliances is no longer sufficient to sway urban voters. To remain competitive, parties will need a combination of strong candidates, coordinated strategy, and a credible development agenda. The elections also underline the increasing sophistication of city electorates: voters are willing to endure short-term inconvenience for long-term gains, signalling a maturing political consciousness. The Mahayuti sweep in Maharashtra is as much about perception as it is about policy. By projecting competence, decisiveness, and a focus on modernisation, Fadnavis and his allies have repositioned themselves at the apex of state politics. Their challenge now is to convert electoral triumph into effective governance. Delivering visible improvements in city infrastructure and services will not only justify the electorate’s confidence but also provide momentum for larger political battles ahead. In the long run, these municipal results are less about immediate power shifts than about political momentum. They illustrate the growing primacy of performance politics in India’s urban centres, where citizens are increasingly intolerant of stagnation and empty promises. For Devendra Fadnavis, the overwhelming verdict is both an endorsement and a responsibility: the electorate has signalled that it expects tangible results. For his rivals, the lesson is unambiguous. If they hope to challenge the Mahayuti’s growing dominance, they must innovate, modernise, and reconnect with a voter base that now prizes efficacy over rhetoric. Maharashtra’s cities have spoken. They have chosen development over identity, delivery over nostalgia, and pragmatism over populism.   (The writer is a political observer. Views personal.)

Choked Capital

Delhi’s winter smog is the symptom of a chronic governance failure.

Delhi
Delhi

Even with farm fires at a multi-year low, Delhi-NCR’s winter air remains suffocating. For most of October and November, pollution levels oscillated between “very poor” and “severe,” fuelled not by distant fields but by a rising cocktail of PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide from vehicles, industry, waste burning and domestic fuel. According to the Centre for Science and Environment, 22 monitoring stations recorded carbon monoxide above permissible limits on more than half of the 59 days assessed. Dwarka Sector 8 logged breaches on 55 days, followed closely by Jahangirpuri and Delhi University’s North Campus at 50. Smaller towns in the National Capital Region fared no better, with Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and Sonipat reported smog episodes of unprecedented duration.


The picture is no longer confined to isolated hotspots. Jahangirpuri, Bawana, Wazirpur, Anand Vihar and Mundka routinely breach PM2.5 averages of over 100 µg/m³ which is five times the World Health Organization’s guideline. New hotspots from Vivek Vihar to Patparganj underscore a worrying trend of the capital turning into a patchwork of pollution nodes. The message from the data is stark: stubble burning, while widely blamed, contributed less than 5 percent of Delhi’s pollution for much of early winter. Local sources, especially vehicular emissions, are driving the city’s chronic smog.


PM2.5 spikes track nitrogen dioxide during peak traffic hours, with carbon monoxide similarly breaching limits. The synchronised peaks of these pollutants are no accident. Shallow winter boundary layers trap emissions, turning the city into a gas chamber. Yet policy remains fixated on dust suppression, sprinklers and sporadic measures against farm fires while the engines of pollution hum unchecked. Delhi’s local emissions are effectively ignored even as residents cough through the morning commute.


Late last month, a small protest at India Gate against hazardous air quality met a heavy police presence. Deploying the Rapid Action Force to contain peaceful demonstrators sends a message that Delhi’s authorities are incapable of addressing the root causes of smog. Public frustration is rising, as middle-class recourse to purifiers and private vacations no longer suffices.


This is hardly Delhi’s first brush with national embarrassment. In November 2016, after PM2.5 crossed 900 µg/m³ in parts of the city, schools were shut, flights were diverted and the Supreme Court memorably described the Capital as a “gas chamber.” In 2019, the city plunged into another health emergency after post-Diwali pollution sent AQI readings beyond 500, forcing the odd-even scheme back onto the streets.


Air pollution in North India is not merely a Delhi problem. Monitoring stations trace a continuous zone of foul air stretching from Islamabad to Bihar, where industry, power generation, transport and agriculture circulate in a shared airshed. Yet authority is fragmented among central ministries, state departments, municipal bodies and semi-autonomous regulators, each with partial jurisdiction and mixed incentives. The Commission for Air Quality Management was meant to coordinate this tangle, but its interventions have failed to match the scale or persistence of the threat. Treating winter smog as a seasonal emergency rather than a permanent condition has encouraged episodic action without structural reform.


What is required is nothing short of an overhaul with time-bound electrification targets, scrapping of old vehicles, expansion of public transport, congestion taxes, industrial fuel reforms, elimination of waste burning and remediation of legacy dumps. Quick fixes consume public funds and administrative bandwidth without denting emissions. Only persistent, enforceable measures backed by political courage will clear the air.


Meanwhile, pollution refuses to wait. The AQI this week has already risen to 331, with Bawana at 387, Anand Vihar 381 and RK Puram 356. Residents report burning eyes, constant coughing and disrupted routines. With temperatures dropping further and winter settling in, the smog will thicken. Delhi’s air is now an emblem of systemic failure, of a capital choking not just on exhaust fumes, but on bureaucratic inertia and political timidity. It is the mirror of India’s fragmented, reactive approach to environmental governance.


Until policymakers confront the underlying emissions, and until enforcement is scaled to the severity of the crisis, Delhi will remain a city in visible distress and a capital perpetually choked.

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