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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.

The Vanishing Green Cover

Vanishing Green Cover

This rapid development and widespread urban sprawl have drastically depleted green cover leading to habitat loss, pollution and significantly impacting the quality of life. In spite of this gloomy reality, the section of people including many political party leaders who support the felling of trees at Aarey Colony to make way for a Metro car shed claim that Aarey is not a forest. The Maharashtra government had told the Bombay High Court that Aarey Colony could not be declared a forest just because of its greenery. Adivasis who have been cultivating land there are helplessly making feeble attempts to oppose this.


In the middle of the city lies Aarey, an urban oasis that serves as a green lung for a city suffocating under the weight of its own development. It is also a sanctuary to an array of wildlife, some of it rare and vulnerable.


A portion of Aarey was declared a reserved forest in 2020, after years of collective struggle and protests. Just outside, the city’s first underground metro has started rolling in the first week of October.

Inside the ecologically sensitive zone, spread across 25 acres, is the barricaded enclosure of the Metro 3 car shed. It is almost ready, and shockingly silent. Nine metro rakes are parked in the shed.


An office building is positioned to one side, another building at one end, and yet another for the maintenance of the trains and their smooth operation. All that’s left are minor fixtures.


Interestingly, the green signal has been given by the Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety. The final permission needed for this metro link to be flagged off.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already inaugurated Phase One of Metro 3, from Aarey to the Bandra Kurla Complex very recently. There’s a dense patch of trees at the heart of the car shed. This plot has not been needed yet, say Metro officials, although there’s no saying when the axe could fall.

The inauguration of Metro 3 is a hint of the things to come in the light. Presently everything has come to standstill. It’s a lull before the storm.


There are plans for a remote forest, and, around it, more construction. There is conflict brewing – administrators talk of high-rises and infrastructure.


The tribals who stay in the padas are helplessly looking at the prevailing situation. The land, now developed, was a part of their lives and livelihood. It’s where the indigenous inhabitants used to forage for plants, herbs, roots, vegetables and fruit.


A stream flowed through it, now diverted by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), and replaced with an extensive drainage line. The metro car shed rose from the ashes of a long-drawn-out movement led by environmentalists and citizens. Though they could not stop the car shed from being built in this green zone.

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