The Misal of Maharashtra Politics: Mumbai, Mahanagar & Mess - Up

“When the state whose Babasaheb Ambedkar gave India its constitution, stumbles, it's truly a time to do political course correction.”

The election season of the year is back in full swing, and this time the boiling pot is Maharashtra. The state with the highest urbanisation index is currently undergoing the process of electing all its urban local bodies in the form of municipalities and municipal corporations.

Illustration by The Geostrata

It is these elections that matter for policy implementation when it comes to packing and addressing issues of the common man. However, these elections, apart from the slugfest that they are, are witnessing a strange politics, where leaders are more focused on managing their flock and the numbers game rather than on campaigning and the issues surrounding it.

From strange, unholy alliances to bringing in numerical permutations and combinations across different districts and their accompanying corporations, the local body elections in Maharashtra have seen it all. But the question here is whether the state is really seeing it for the first time, or if it's business as usual for the politicians.

The political bosses of the state are now pushing the breaking and building of parties and alliances down the lanes of municipalities as well, which has the ability to push out of focus, policy issues of the state, and hamper development at the grassroots, breaking the principle of decentralisation and constitutional federalism.

Understanding a little history of this political number game arithmetic, the state saw its first playout with former Chief Minister Sharad Pawar, taking the majority away from then Chief Minister Vasant Dada Patil in 1978. And since then, until the present era of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, keeping the flock together has been an issue that has played in the subconscious thoughts of all leaders.

In fact, the breaking up of two regional parties, Shiv Sena (SS)  and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), within a span of less than 2 years presents corroborative evidence to the argument being pushed. Attached to this is the impetus that such actions push the envelope in favour of a strange “downward -filtration theory”, where even local leaders start borrowing the template of their political bosses.

Three decades ago, when leaders like Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao envisaged the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments to bring in decentralisation and make citizenry a part of decision-making processes, it could never have been imagined that such a day would come.

And going by the scenarios playing out on the open in Maharashtra, it seems that the local body elections are being fought from a perspective of showing political management, putting planning, policy, and implementation in a distant background.

Though such a day was envisaged and the anti-defection law from the 10th schedule of the constitution was put into place for local bodies as well, parties found a way to bypass it as well. The instances of unopposed election victories are a new trend that has followed the track from states like West Bengal to Maharashtra as well. 

ALLIANCES GALORE, BUT PEOPLE'S WILL?

The way unholy alliances have this time rocked the political pundits and common citizenry during this election season is like a pendulum swinging multiple ways. In fact, understanding the ground reports and the unholy unions that have taken place in the name of snatch and grab of power must be talked about and reverberated about. 

To understand the political scenario of the state, the ruling alliance in the state government happens to be Mahayuti, consisting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), and NCP (Ajit Pawar). On its diametric opposite is the Maha Vikas Agadi (MVA), consisting of the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena (UBT), and Sharad Pawar’s NCP(SP), the latter two being products of original party splits. Amidst all of these are smaller players, like Samajwadi Party (SP), Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

However, when it comes to understanding the daily politics of the districts, the brute force and will of individual local leaders happen to be surpassing the writ and party discipline of their senior colleagues.

Going district-wise, two of the laughable and bizarre circumstances came from the BJP, where in Akola district it partnered with AIMIM and went with the Congress in the Ambernath city to keep its own ally Shiv Sena out of the power equation.

In both cases, the party high command issued warnings and threats of disciplinary action with no further media availability of the same.

Similarly, in the Pimpri - Chinchwad municipal corporation, both the NCP's are fighting together, bringing the Pawar family together, with the BJP calling it a measure to not give any third alliance and edge over the others. Similarly, in Ahilyangar (formerly Ahmednagar), the BJP and NCP have allied, keeping out the Shiv Sena. 

BROTHERHOOD COMEBACK OR POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM?

However, the biggest of these political matchmakers has been the coming together of the Thackeray brothers, Raj and Uddhav, who had gone their separate ways back in 2006. And in all these years, until very recently in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, where there was utter bitterness, name -calling and personal attacks between the two.

However, “in the interest of Marathi and Marathi Manus,” they have allied after the issue arose of adding Hindi as a third language in primary schools across Maharashtra.

The issue is not development, not solving the legacy issues of Mumbai's infrastructure, but standing up for the marathi manus (common Marathi people). The ruling Mahayuti, too, couldn't put up a united front with the BJP and Shiv Sena pushing their tried and tested formula while Ajit Pawar's NCP went solo.

However, all of this boils down to the fact that all these unholy alliances have been formed in some of the most budget -heavy and revenue-rich municipal regions. This further gives heat to the fact that urban local bodies are a hornet's nest for political favouritism and policy mismanagement. 

Purely from an ethics-based polity, this system is damaging to the fabric of the society, releasing the genies of regionalism, muscle power and political opportunism. Such antics may give temporary, one-time political dividends, but axe at the very root of why local bodies or decentralised governance institutions were envisaged.

In addition to this, once power is achieved using such means, then the priority shifts towards keeping individuals satisfied with funds, policy deliverables, and key positions. It scuttles real administrative talent and breaks down sustainable thought.

Moreover, the case in point, which strengthens this feeling, is that such unholy alliances, candidate manipulation, and disproportionate money flow are in regions and districts where incumbent local leaders were on a sticky wicket with regard to their work and policy delivery. The only silver lining is that every day, the vernacular press and media have had a lot of political “masala” to offer their viewers and readers.

ISSUES TAKING A BACK SEAT?

Meanwhile, issues like Mumbai's pollution and rain drainage problems, Sambhajinagar’s industrial revival, and Pune’s traffic problems, amongst others, have either got little mention or are completely secondary. Somehow, the citizenry too seems to be enjoying this political mudslinging, or has grown a thick skin to be completely indifferent to this crisis. Such political gambits actually stumble development in unimaginable ways.

From slow delivery of projects, to cutting of funding for dissident opposition are methodologies, which only create obstacles in the last mile delivery of public services and local governance 

What started as a one-off incident in the late 1970s, today, after the Guwahati run-off, which caused the Shiv Sena split, has rapidly crept into the underbelly of the polity of Maharashtra, that being in the form of unholy alliances going on at the level of Municipalities and nagarsevak (ward) level politics. In fact, the shameless political dictum of “aaya ram, gaya ram” (rapidly changing political sides to stay in power) is back on the talking table of the state's lingo.

But would discussing parties, ideologies, and their work be a solution to the current predicament? In fact, a straight face “NO” is the answer to that, because when the parties themselves are shooting themselves in their figurative foot, what's the large point of this exercise? However, there are solutions galore, which include a “multi - pronged approach”.

This begins with revisiting the recommendations of the Ashok Mehta committee (1977) whereby it was recommended that in panchayati Raj institutions, political parties should not contest as individual entities, and the same suggestion can be applied to urban local bodies in the present scenario.

In fact, having a non- partisan approach would help deliver ground zero governance, which would help cradle an independent thought which is out of bounds of party line and its “discipline”.

In addition to this, the strict implementation of the 10th schedule (52nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1985), must be followed, in most cases, overriding the state laws that bring anti -defection under check.

Moreover, the purpose of decentralisation was participatory governance; this, the concept of “right of recall” which already exists in Maharashtra for panchayats and Municipalities, must be taken to the citizens, allowing citizens to remove elected representatives for non-performance and callous delivery.

AN APPEAL TO EVERYONE'S CONSCIENCE

At the end of the day, this round of elections won't see any real change, both practical and moral. Yet, the only closing hope happens to be that the polity, citizenry and the civil society, as multiple stakeholders, come together to introspect about where we are, and where we are headed.

A thorough introspection is necessary for the state, whose Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar rose to write the constitution, the state that envisaged local body governance, to avoid being entangled ethically and financially in shoddy, vested interests. Now is the time for course correction and strengthening Indian democratic institutions, which work not just for us in the present, but also for the future and those who have been neglected. 

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BY KAUSHAL SINGH AND ASHISH SAHUJI

CENTRE FOR POLITICS AND LAW

TEAM GEOSTRATA

info@thegeostrata.com