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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

Shinde dilutes demand

Likely to be content with Deputy Mayor’s post in Mumbai Mumbai: In a decisive shift that redraws the power dynamics of Maharashtra’s urban politics, the standoff over the prestigious Mumbai Mayor’s post has ended with a strategic compromise. Following days of resort politics and intense backroom negotiations, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has reportedly diluted its demand for the top job in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), settling instead for the Deputy Mayor’s post. This...

Shinde dilutes demand

Likely to be content with Deputy Mayor’s post in Mumbai Mumbai: In a decisive shift that redraws the power dynamics of Maharashtra’s urban politics, the standoff over the prestigious Mumbai Mayor’s post has ended with a strategic compromise. Following days of resort politics and intense backroom negotiations, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has reportedly diluted its demand for the top job in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), settling instead for the Deputy Mayor’s post. This development, confirmed by high-ranking party insiders, follows the realization that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) effectively ceded its claims on the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) to protect the alliance, facilitating a “Mumbai for BJP, Kalyan for Shinde” power-sharing formula. The compromise marks a complete role reversal between the BJP and the Shiv Sena. Both the political parties were in alliance with each other for over 25 years before 2017 civic polls. Back then the BJP used to get the post of Deputy Mayor while the Shiv Sena always enjoyed the mayor’s position. In 2017 a surging BJP (82 seats) had paused its aggression to support the undivided Shiv Sena (84 seats), preferring to be out of power in the Corporation to keep the saffron alliance intact. Today, the numbers dictate a different reality. In the recently concluded elections BJP emerged as the single largest party in Mumbai with 89 seats, while the Shinde faction secured 29. Although the Shinde faction acted as the “kingmaker”—pushing the alliance past the majority mark of 114—the sheer numerical gap made their claim to the mayor’s post untenable in the long run. KDMC Factor The catalyst for this truce lies 40 kilometers north of Mumbai in Kalyan-Dombivali, a region considered the impregnable fortress of Eknath Shinde and his son, MP Shrikant Shinde. While the BJP performed exceptionally well in KDMC, winning 50 seats compared to the Shinde faction’s 53, the lotter for the reservation of mayor’s post in KDMC turned the tables decisively in favor of Shiv Sena there. In the lottery, the KDMC mayor’ post went to be reserved for the Scheduled Tribe candidate. The BJP doesn’t have any such candidate among elected corporatros in KDMC. This cleared the way for Shiv Sena. Also, the Shiv Sena tied hands with the MNS in the corporation effectively weakening the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s alliance with them. Party insiders suggest that once it became clear the BJP would not pursue the KDMC Mayor’s chair—effectively acknowledging it as Shinde’s fiefdom—he agreed to scale down his demands in the capital. “We have practically no hope of installing a BJP Mayor in Kalyan-Dombivali without shattering the alliance locally,” a Mumbai BJP secretary admitted and added, “Letting the KDMC become Shinde’s home turf is the price for securing the Mumbai Mayor’s bungalow for a BJP corporator for the first time in history.” The formal elections for the Mayoral posts are scheduled for later this month. While the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA)—led by the Shiv Sena (UBT)—has vowed to field candidates, the arithmetic heavily favors the ruling alliance. For Eknath Shinde, accepting the Deputy Mayor’s post in Mumbai is a tactical retreat. It allows him to consolidate his power in the MMR belt (Thane and Kalyan) while remaining a partner in Mumbai’s governance. For the BJP, this is a crowning moment; after playing second fiddle in the BMC for decades, they are poised to finally install their own “First Citizen” of Mumbai.

Dumping grounds

Updated: Dec 2, 2024

Dumping grounds

This seems to be a million dollar question. As we learnt from my last week’s article, open dumping of garbage has potential to spread diseases, potential to pollute air. Soil and water, occupies large space, can catch fire adding many obnoxious and toxic gases in already polluted surrounding air etc. Apart from these hazards, open garbage dumps also generate huge amount of methane. It is one of the “Greenhouse Gases” which are responsible for most pressing environmental problem of the 21 st century, i.e. ‘Global Warming’ and subsequent climate change.


In addition to all these issues and problems, open garbage dumps present very ugly sight so those are not acceptable. In short such a place loses its aesthetic appeal.


This can have adverse impact on the property that is in the vicinity. Property rates crash down causing financial losses to the concerned people. Now we can understand the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) mentality of the people and why they oppose having an open dump in their vicinity. Sometime this opposition becomes so strong that literally there have been riots over this issue in the past. Two incidences are noteworthy. In 2018, villagers of Mandki, at the outskirts of Aurangabad city did not allow the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation to dump the garbage from the city in their area. Residents of Padegaon-Mitmita villages where the AMC tried to dump the garbage protested very strongly.


When the authorities did not budge, the villagers burnt two garbage carrying trucks. The situation went out of control and the police force was called to control the situation. Villagers didn’t budge either and then the police had to resort to Lathi charge. The villagers of Devachi Uruli-Phursungi within jurisdiction of Pune Municipal Corporation had to face lot of hardships and health issues because of the dumping ground where thousands of tons of garbage from the city was being dumped every day. So, the villagers came together and staged protest to stop dumping the garbage there. Their protest turned violent occasionally resulting in casualties at times.


Thane Municipal corporation is facing space crunch and is unable to find a suitable place for dumping the garbage. A makeshift dumping ground at Bhandarli village has to be closed due to protest by the villagers. A few acres of land have been earmarked at Daighar village near Shil Phata. But the locals do not want this to happen in their backyard. These are just few representative incidences. This is happening almost everywhere across India.


Ok! We have understood the problems associated with open dumping of the garbage. But then what? Is there any solution to this problem? Of course, there is not just one or two, but multiple solutions to overcome all these issues. Since the problems related to generation of garbage and subsequent disposal are created by us, the humans, it is our responsibility to work on the solutions to solve these problems. We will discuss the possible solutions and remedial measures we can take to solve these problems in the subsequent articles. Till then, have a good weekend!


(The author is an environmentalist. Views personal.)

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