Dinesh Kamath's news 'BJP appears to be the favourites in forthcoming NMMC elections' that was published in Newsband

BJP appears to be the favourites in forthcoming NMMC elections

By Dinesh Kamath

Above Picture: MLA Manda Mhatre

NAVI MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections are come very close and the politicians of Navi Mumbai are busy trying new tactics to woo the voters. This time the municipal election in the city shows promise of becoming a close fight and there might be quite many surprises. This time there is bound to be a tough fight among Nationalist Congress Party, Bhartiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena.  Shiv Sena and BJP in Navi Mumbai have gained considerably in strength owing to the exodus of many NCP members, many of them prominent ones, to their parties. The exodus of senior leaders of NCP into Sena and BJP has made the chances of these two parties during the forthcoming elections very bright.  In fact, Both Sena and BJP are expecting still more NCP members to jump into their parties.

The major setback for NCP and tremendous gain for BJP began when Manda Mhatre quit NCP and joined BJP after she openly displayed her differences with Ganesh Naik and his family. Naiks had taken Manda Mhatre’s exit from NCP very lightly and they never even dreamt that this would do a lot of damage to NCP. Manda Mhatre not only won the Legislative Assembely election from Belapur but she beat none other than Ganesh Naik himself. NCP has yet to recover from this severe shock which Manda Mhatre gave them.

BJP big shots were so much impressed by Manda Mhatre’s performance in the election that they without hesitation made Mhatre the election chief for the forthcoming municipal elections. Mhatre has tremendous support of the women folk in the city as these women consider Mhatre as their idol. She has become a cult figure among many Navi Mumbai residents, especially those with rural background. She has a knack of wooing the voters and making the right statements at the right time. She also knows the strengths and weaknesses of Naik family with whom she had worked very closely for a long time. All these assets of Manda Mhatre is proving to be an advantage for BJP of Navi Mumbai and hence Mhatre has been given all the freedom to play the role of election chief the way she likes since they know the when it comes to Navi Mumbai politics, Mhatre commits hardly any mistake.  

Shiv Sena will find the forthcoming NMMC elections a real struggle owing to their powerful leader Vijay Chougule having stepped down from the post of district chief. They will have to campaign in extremely big way if they wish to achieve some kind of break through in the forthcoming election. Sena’s plus point is that they have the guidance of MP Rajan Vichare and Eknath Shinde who is Thane guardian minister. Sena also has a powerful local leader in the form of Vithal More who is looked at with respect and devotion by a big number of city residents.

The Congress too will have to put in extremely hard work since this time they are without the services of Namdev Bhagat who quit his party to join Sena. But Dashrath Bhagat who is known for his fighting spirit will not leave any stone unturned to see to it the Congress earns at least some respectable position in NMMC after the elections.

NCP which is currently having the majority seats in NMMC will have a real tough time in maintaining their top position in the corporation particularly after the defeat suffered by their leader Ganesh Naik in the assembly election and Sanjeev Naik in the Lok Sabha election. The Sharad Pawar-led party performed very poorly in the Lok Sabha elections and this will prove to be another negative point for NCP, whereas BJP is enjoying the advantage owing to Modi-factor which can do the magic for the saffron party in the city.