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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.

Waterlogged Dreams

It took just one night of rain to drown the government’s credibility. As the first heavy showers of an exceptionally early monsoon lashed Mumbai, the city’s much-touted infrastructure crumbled like papier-mâché in a storm. Roads caved in, metro stations turned into ponds, and the so-called ‘world-class’ coastal road was reduced to a congested canal. What was unveiled with fanfare in recent months lay soaked, battered and exposed. The Mahayuti government, which has spent more time cutting ribbons than plugging leaks, stands humiliated.


The early arrival of the monsoon had been predicted by meteorologists. Yet the ruling coalition, bloated with promises and high on photo-ops, seemed wholly unprepared for it. Lakhs of commuters were stranded, airport schedules thrown into disarray and the city’s overburdened rail and road networks ground to a halt. For the ‘Maximum City,’ this was maximum dysfunction.


The biggest embarrassment was the inundation of the newly inaugurated underground Metro Line 3. Meant to ease congestion and elevate commuting standards, the ‘Aqua Line’ instead lived up to its moniker in the most unfortunate way as passengers waded through muddy floodwaters at Worli station. Viral videos on social media showed waterfalls pouring into the platforms. Officials blamed a collapsed retaining wall near the Acharya Atre Chowk station. But their disclaimers - that the flooded sections were not yet open to the public, and that water seeped in from a utility trench - only added insult to injury. Why was a vital part of the metro’s waterproofing compromised before the monsoon even began in earnest?


The Mahayuti regime has bet heavily on showpiece projects, be they coastal roads, metro tunnels, expressways. The BMC-built coastal road, which was already being pitched as Mumbai’s answer to Marine Drive 2.0, became a channel for waterlogging, with parts of it submerged and traffic severely disrupted. That it faltered within weeks of its opening reflects not the wrath of nature, but the hubris of planners who ignored it. At Kemps Corner, a vital link in South Mumbai’s elite residential quarters, a section of the road simply collapsed. It triggered chaos in an area where land prices rival Manhattan’s.


The officialdom had assured the public that the city was ‘fully prepared’ for the monsoon, with drainage systems cleaned, flood-response teams activated and infrastructure ready to withstand the worst. Yet, the first showers were enough to wreak havoc on metros, delay trains and snarl flights. The collapse of the Worli station’s retaining wall is a metaphor for a government whose public relations veneer cannot withstand a few hours of rain.


Mumbai’s monsoon flooding is a legacy problem. But Monday’s debacle underscores that the current government has done little to fix it despite controlling vast financial and administrative resources. If Mumbai’s transformation is to be more than a glossy PowerPoint pitch, accountability must follow failure. Otherwise, waterlogged metro stations and collapsed roads will keep returning every time as indictments of criminally poor planning, drowning not just concrete and tarmac, but public trust.

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