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Civic issues get little attention in BMC poll campaign

The month-long campaign for the February 10 elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ended on Friday evening with hardly any discussion of Mumbai's civic issues.

The BMC poll is considered among the most prestigious since the civic body's budget exceeds that of five states in the country.

The fate of 2,065 candidates in the fray for the BMC's 227 seats will be decided by 80,44,190 voters on Sunday. Counting of votes will begin on Monday morning and all results are expected to be declared by 2000 hours (IST) the same day.

The decision of the main constituents of the ruling coalition in the state - Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress - to contest the poll individually virtually handed over the advantage to the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party combine, ruling partners in the 227-member civic body.

Despite this, the Sena-BJP combine did not have a smooth ride as the Sena was beset with internal problems.

In the run-up to the elections, the feud between Sena leaders Uddhav and Raj Thackeray distracted attention from civic issues. Sena chief Bal thackeray had to intervene personally to effect a patch-up.

Then it was the turn of the 'rebel' phenomenon to upset the calculations of the major parties.

The Shiv Sena was the worst affected with 15 rebel candidates in the fray and half of them with a realistic chance of winning.

Strangely, the Sena-BJP combine preferred to focus on the 'achievements' of the National Democratic Alliance, the Indo-Pak problem and even the foreign policy issues over local concerns.

However, the NCP and the Congress were no better spending most of their time throwing muck at each other.

But the NCP also sought to embarrass the Sena-BJP by focussing on the so-far unpublished inquiry report into corruption in the BMC.

Senior leaders of all parties addressed meetings with the Sena-BJP roping in Union Home Minister L K Advani to flag off its election campaign along with Sena chief Bal Thackeray at Girgaum Chowpatty on January 21.

Thackeray addressed another well-attended meeting at Shivaji Park on February seven while son Uddhav and Raj too addressed many rallies - but always separately.

BJP's national vice-president Gopinath Munde and its Union ministers Ram Naik, Jaywantiben Mehta and Venkaiah Naidu too threw in their weight during the campaign.

For the NCP, party president Sharad Pawar addressed several meetings on February six in Mumbai, mostly in the northern suburbs, where the saffron alliance is believed to have an edge.

Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal created a record of sorts by addressing over 80 public gatherings during the campaign charging the Sena-BJP with mismanagement and corruption in the BMC.

But even as he lampooned its 'dossier of achievements', he did not spare the Congress either criticising it for its 'foreigner fixation' and 'shifting stances'.

For the Congress, the campaign was spearheaded by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Mumbai Congress unit chief Murli Deora.

Their main target was the NCP but after venting all their anger on their coalition partner, they had few harsh words left for the Sena-BJP.

The party even managed to rope in actor Govinda to campaign for its candidate in Kandivli (in northern Mumbai) Shashi Prabhu on the final day of electioneering.

The Samajwadi Party, which has a good following among minorities and migrants from north India, got its national general secretary Amar Singh to address two meetings in the Muslim-dominated areas of the metropolis along with actor Raj Babbar.

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