Mumbai civic polls: Campaign yet to take off, Congess leaders worried over strategy

Even on Tuesday, while around 150 members of the Mumbai Congress executive committee met with H K Patil, the AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra, and three secretaries — Ashish Dua, Sonal Patel and Sampat Kumar — along with other office bearers, there was no specific discussion on the upcoming polls.

A Mumbai Congress functionary said, “The polls were on day’s agenda and ideally the poll strategy should have been discussed, but it did not happen and now this will be done later.” He further said that as elections are due sometime in September-October, “we barely have time.’’

A senior party leader and former CM said that while the party must unite, he hoped that the Gandhi family comes to campaign for the elections in the city. “There are various factions in the Mumbai Congress. Bhai Jagtap who is the president of Mumbai regional Congress committee, must now try to take all of them together. In the last elections, the Gandhi family did not participate actively. This time around, we wish they come to Mumbai for campaign,” the leader said.

Former Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam said that there is resentment among Mumbaikars against the Sena over many issues, including the condition of roads, and added that even though the Congress and the Sena are sharing power in the state, the alliance should not come in way of criticising the Sena.

“Our Congress is hesitant in criticising the Sena. But running the coalition in the state is a different thing and contesting BMC elections solo are two different things. Congress will contest alone and I don’t think we must go for alliance,’’ Nirupam said.

Congress MLA, Amin Patel, also said that there was no discussion in the Tuesday meeting on Mumbai polls. “We discussed about the social engineering and one man, one post,” Patel added.

Both the Shiv Sena and BJP are have been engaged in a pitch battle in the run-up to the elections. The Shiv Sena has organised many cricket tournaments, matches, haldi-kumkum events and Ganpati sponsorships while the BJP has spent a lot on sporting events and festivals.

Even as the BJP has asked MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar to be in charge of the polls, former CM Devendra Fadnavis and Bandra West MLA Ashish Shelar are directly heading the poll preparations.

When asked about the Mumbai Congress lagging behind in the preparation for the polls, Jagtap said, “We are also gearing up on this. We will be having a two-day meeting to plan strategy for the polls. On Tuesday, we had a meeting at Mumbai to implement what was discussed in Udaipur (chintan shivir). We also plan to have a two-day meeting for preparedness for polls on June 3 and 4.’’

In the meeting with Patil, the MRCC also passed a resolution to increase wards from 227 to 236 since the government had increased wards in BMC and organisational elections can be held. But nothing was discussed in terms of strategy.
Though many in the Mumbai Congress want the party to go solo, some leaders in the MVA want the Congress, the Sena and the NCP to go together to put up a joint fight against the BJP.

Mumbai Congress working president Charansingh Sapra said, “We are aggressive in the run-up to the election. We are exposing Sena’s corruption in project-affected persons’ accommodation and sewage treatment plant scam. Wherever we are finding corruption, we are pointing it out and will also approach courts. At organisational level, we are geared up. We are contesting all 236 seats.’’

Meanwhile, at the meeting, former minister and working president of the MPCC Naseem Khan resigned from his post in Mumbai Congress campaign committee, in line with the party’s one man, one post policy.