BMC polls ahead, BEST results worst scenario for Thackeray cousins

Indian Express

18 hours ago

Billed by the Thackeray cousins as the testing of waters for an alliance between their parties for the coming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, the BEST credit society results that came in Wednesday instead proved a rude shock.
Despite Uddhav and Raj joining forces for the first time in two decades, their Shiv Sena (UBT)-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) combine, which contested the polls under the 'Utkarsh' panel, failed to win even one of the 19 seats it contested. Worse for the Thackerays, the voter base of the election was largely Marathi speakers, seen to be a core support base of the family.
The united Shiv Sena held control over the cooperative for nine years, and for Uddhav, who has already lost control of most of the party to the Eknath Shinde-led faction, this is yet another setback. For MNS chief Raj, it reinforces concerns regarding his party's organisational weakness.
The polls, which saw an impressive turnout of 83% with 12,656 of the 15,123 members voting, threw up a decisive verdict, with transport union leader Shashank Rao's panel winning 14 of the 21 seats and the BJP-Shiv Sena combine, which contested under the 'Sahakar Samruddhi' panel, winning seven.
While the BEST polls were a minor test, the Thackeray unity had brought the spotlight on them. A high-decibel campaign saw the Sena (UBT) and MNS invoke Marathi pride and attack the BJP-Shiv Sena combine on language and identity.
That the poor showing followed a July 5 joint rally held by the two where they slammed the Devendra Fadnavis government's now-repealed decision to implement the three-language formula has also left leaders and workers of the two parties dejected.
The BJP camp which had coined the slogan 'BEST to jhanki hai, BMC abhi baaki hai (BEST was a preview, BMC is next)', was jubilant, with Fadnavis claiming that the BJP-Sena had 'swept the polls' as the Rao panel and Mahayuti were on the same side.
Downplaying the results, Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said Mumbai would accept only 'brand Thackeray', and it could not be finished. The party's BEST Kamgar Sena chief, Suhas Samant, blamed the loss on 'the BJP's money power'.
'In the past week we saw an enormous flow of money. We thought workers may take the money but still vote for us… I tried to save BEST, but the BJP put in money and used its influence. We fell short of matching their resources,' Samant said.
The BJP-Sena, which had also dubbed the contest as 'original Hindutva versus duplicate brand', said the results showed that the 'Thackeray brand' was actually 'zero brand'. The Shinde Sena claims that Uddhav has diluted his Hindutva credentials by tying up with the Congress.
'The Thackeray brand scored a triple zero. The brand's bosses could not secure even a single seat,' BJP leader Prasad Lad said while BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhyay mocked the Thackerays saying 'the result of adding two zeroes is zero'.
Declaring that the 'Thackeray brand has been silenced in Mumbai', BJP state media chief Nawanath Ban said only the Hindutva brand will win from now on. Party spokesperson Ram Kulkarni took a dig at 'vote theft' claims. 'The election was held through ballot papers. Will Raut accept defeat? (Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi, who alleges vote theft, should comment on these results… We do politics for people's welfare, not family drama,' Kulkarni said.
While the results have opened up questions on the efficacy of the Thackeray alliance and the viability of a 'larger Marathi front' against the BJP-Sena combine, political observers pointed out that civic polls are different. 'Yes, the Thackerays failed to attract their Marathi voter base in the BEST polls but it is far fetched to say the same would happen in the BMC polls. The issues in the BEST polls are worker-centric while they are very different in the civic polls,' said Dr Sanjay Patil, political observer and researcher at Mumbai University.