In Mumbai, get up and vote! Here's why

Compelling reasons why you must vote in the Mumbai civic elections.

The polling for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the biggest civic body in the country, is underway. And in the 227-seat Mumbai corporation, the election is a fiercely fought affair.

Early on Thursday morning, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kriti Somaiya stepped out to cast his ballot. He said he had to wait in a small queue with just 15 people ahead of him. "The voting percentage is likely to improve," he said.

And one desperately hopes so. (But at the time of this report being filed the numbers were dismal).

In August last year, a report published in the Hindustan Times said that after three days of heavy rains, 1,700 potholes had surfaced at 308 locations across the city.

This just goes on to explain the level of degeneration of Mumbai. Its infrastructure has crumbled but one doesn't see any sign of any discomfort in the system or any embarrassment among those responsible for it. Mumbai is slipping into status quo.

Thursday's election in that sense creates a little hope. If the Shiv Sena-BJP are vote back to power then they will have show a little improvement in their performance. If the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party emerges victorious -- after a gap of 17 years -- they are expected to do things differently, as they have been promising.

"The BJP, Shiv Sena, the Republican Party of India and Raj Thackeray's the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena will win enough seats to reach a majority mark," said a senior journalist, who has reported the early years of the growing clout of the Shiv Sena in the 1970s. 

The BMC election, considered a semifinal before the final of assembly elections, assumes importance.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar had said that he will not be fighting any more elections. Bal Thackeray is 85 and wants his son Uddhav to get a stronger grip over the Shiv Sena.  Prithviraj Chavan was sent from Delhi to assume charge of Maharashtra after Ashok Chavan had to step down as chief minister of the state after his name cropped up in the Adarsh Society scam.

Today, the Maharashtra CM wants to open his political innings by winning the all-important BMC elections. He is desperate to prove that he is just not a tech-savvy urbane leader imposed by the Congress high command but he understands grassroots politics and can have a say in Maratha politics personified by Pawar.

If the Congress-NCP wins the election it will only strengthen Chavan further. But what's ironical is that the two parties are pitted against each other in Pune, casting doubts over their alliance in Mumbai.

Only a few days back, Chavan accused the NCP in Pune for taking credit for development projects. "At other places we are competing with the BJP-Sena alliance. But in Pune, we have to lock horns with our alliance partner NCP. They have always rejected consensus and politicised all development issues. The five-year term in the PMC was a complete mess. There was partiality in tenders, substandard works were carried out and still bills were cleared in huge numbers," he told the media.

Chavan has been complaining about "the favoured city" treatment given to New Delhi. He says compared to the capital, Mumbai gets a stepmotherly treatment.

He is promising the moon. He has promised to get Rs 1 lakh crore from the Centre and has presented his case before Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, too.

Pawar and Thackeray, both giants of Maharashtra politics, would like to win the BMC elections to ensure smooth transition of power to the next generation. In fact, in this election if the Sena-BJP-RPI alliance fails to get a majority it is expected to turn to the MNS for support. Feelers of the two parties working on their differences have already been given out and an alliance will only get them closer. The MNS is already backing the Sena in Kalyan. 

The last 17 years of the Sena-BJP rule in the BMC has been a failure. Over the years work ethics have taken a beating, corruption has increased manifold and the system is not boosting the socio-culture of Mumbai. 

The dynamism required to enrich the chromosome of Mumbai is just missing. The attitude of the Sena-BJP to maintain status quo is the biggest weakness that has hurt the metropolis.

In India after 1992, New Delhi's importance has reduced. It's the states that have assumed the real power in absence of the license raj. Mumbai could have become the oxygen of a fast-growing India. But, it is one of the greatest missed opportunities of contemporary India -- Mumbai is ignored by the leaders in New Delhi.

Its resources are abused by the elected representatives of the local government and they are showing criminal inefficiency in running and developing it.

The only defence for the Shiv Sena-BJP is that the BMC has little powers and funds for a dramatic development of Mumbai. There are a dozen authorities created by the Congress-led governments to weaken the hold of BMC over Mumbai. The BMC is now more into "maintenance" work, rather than "development" work. The BMC budget is estimated to be Rs 22,000 crore, but more than 60 per cent of it goes into salaries to its workers and other expenses.   

It is said that the BMC's management is Shiv Sena's sole source of survival. But, that is partially true because all the developments are vetted in the Standing Committee of BMC, which comprises all its members. The functioning of the BMC is such that corruption is not a monopoly of the ruling parties.

In fact, one of the real culprits behind Mumbai's stunning fall is authorities like the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority. They are in-charge of the transport, infrastructure, environment and other projects like the development of Dharavi, Asia's largest slum. These projects are outside the scope of the BMC.

The MMRDA has been under the control of the Congress-NCP and is currently headed by Chavan. Its projects are delayed; their skywalks are poorly designed and the project reports are a pure fantasy. Take for example, the Coastal Road Freeway, Navi Mumbai Airport, Virar-Alibaug Corridor, the Mumbai metro and Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link and Interstate River Linking Projects. These projects would help Mumbai but they are suffering from vision-deficiency and bureaucratic delays.  

Alas! Mumbai has wasted the first decade of the 21st century. The common man has been pushed out of the south, ruthlessly. Mumbai's more than 70 crore population, who live in slums, are surpassing all tolerance limits and still not revolting. The middle class is tolerating noise pollution, traffic jams and ever-increasing cost of living. The gap the between rich and poor is growing and how.

It's afternoon, already. If, you are in Mumbai and if you have not voted yet, just stand up and rush. Vote! Because, har eke vote jaroori hota hai. 

Register your love for Mumbai.

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