Neither the beef ban nor the opposition to Pakistani artists has helped BJP and Shiv Sena register any significant victory in 59 local bodies elections, the results of which were declared by the state election commission on Tuesday.
There was no single outright winner in the elections for 59 local bodies and 16 by-elections. The BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress as well as NCP did well in some pockets and were wiped out in others.
Among them, the Kalyan-Dombivali election was of utmost importance for the state’s ruling parties Shiv Sena and BJP. The voters in Kalyan-Dombivali are directly connected with Mumbai and Thane. The working population of these far off suburbs travel daily to work in offices at Thane and Mumbai. A significant portion of the Kalyan-Dombivali population is of people who have their roots in Mumbai and who may be the second or third generation of Mumbai residents.
Though Shiv Sena claimed that it opposed gazhal singer Gulham Ali because of the Indian soldiers being killed at the border by Pakistan, the timing of its protests made it clear it wanted to project itself as a the bigger nationalist than the BJP ahead of the polls. However, the results suggest that the strategy has not worked entirely.
Even for the BJP, the rabble-rousing speeches of its leaders failed to get them complete majority.
Both parties can claim victories on sheer statistics. In 2010, both parties had faced the election as an alliance. This time, Shiv Sena has managed to increase its tally from 31 to 51 on its own. The BJP’s success was even more spectacular as the party grew from nine seats to 43. But what these statistics camouflage is even more important that what it has revealed. Both the parties did not get majority and will be forced to resort to post poll compromises to grab the power.
The Congress and NCP got a humiliating drubbing in the election by winning just six seats between them. The MNS was also reduced from 26 to just nine. But despite the dwindling fortunes of these other significant players in the state politics, both the ruling parties have failed to cross the threshold of the complete majority. The one plausible reason that can explain why this happened is that they have failed to convince voters about their development vision and heavily depended emotional planks and name calling.
