MVA vs BJP? All eyes are on the BMC Elections in 2022

Even though the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election is still two years away, but can already feel that Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gearing up for the same.

As the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government has completed its one year in the office on November 28, these “mini elections” will be a floor test for the three party allies – Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Moreover, the 2022 BMC polls will also be considered as people’s response to the performance of the MVA government.

However, according to the reports, it seems that the ruling partners of the MVA don’t seem to be on the same page about these elections.

When the MVA was formed to claim the power in the state last year after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it was unanimously decided to fight all legislative Council and local body elections together. Accordingly, Shiv Sena chief and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had recently declared that all MVA partners will contest all local body elections, including to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), together as an alliance.

Meanwhile, a section of Congress, including Leader of Opposition Ravi Raja and former Mumbai unit chief Sanjay Nirupam, have been pressing for fighting the civic polls independently. Recently, in a meeting with H K Patil, party in-charge of Maharashtra, the Congress leaders said that they should fight the elections alone in order to keep its voter base in the city. However, they were snubbed by senior leaders, including state unit chief Balasaheb Thorat and executive president of Mumbai unit Eknath Gaikwad, who said the party will join hands with Shiv Sena.

While in case of NCP, the party expects to spread its wings by aligning with Shiv Sena in the coming polls. As per NCP leaders, seat-sharing would not be a problem for three parties if all amicably decide to come together to keep the BJP out of power. The Congress and NCP can fight 75 and 20 seats and go for a better strike rate.

There could be another twist in the tale as there are feelers that BJP may try to forge an alliance with the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for the civic polls in Mumbai. On the contrary, some BJP leaders said that their party would benefit more if the MNS fights independently, as it will damage the Shiv Sena.

Experts say that if the three-party alliance decides to come together, a strong fight by the MVA will help polarise anti-BJP voters.

Now that the focus of all prominent political parties in the state is now on the elections to 15 civic bodies and 27 zilla parishads scheduled in 2022, the three allies will also have to start afresh in reaching out to their respective vote banks.

On the other hand, BJP will be making all efforts to wrest power from Shiv Sena and has already declared that it will emerge as the single largest party in the civic body.

The party, however, proposes to increase its presence in Shiv Sena’s Marathi vote bank and simultaneously consolidate its position among North Indian and Gujarati voters.