The recent Maharashtra Legislative Council elections have raised quite a few brows. Where Maha Vikas Aghadi triumphed over the BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde Faction) in Five Legislative Council seats with Fadnavis and Shinde team securing only one seat, the murmurs in the state has begun about the government’s credibility. Shiv Sena in their mouthpiece saamna launched a scathing attack by stating “The result of the election of the five Legislative Council seats of the state is the mandate of people of Maharashtra. BJP got only one seat out of five. The BJP-Shinde alliance was defeated. These results will put a brake on the falsity of the Fadnavis-Shinde government.” The constituencies of Konkan, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Nashik and Amravati went to polls on 30 January and BJP could win only Konkan while the rest went to MVA Alliance.
Mumbai along with entire Maharashtra has been witness to some big political turmoil in recent years. The state has been at the edge of vulnerable situation due to tumbling infrastructure in over populated cities like Mumbai and Pune. Also the farmers crisis in Vidarbha to Maratha caste reservation issue. The MLC results drubbing are being seen also as a serious concern for the BMC elections in upcoming times. Mumbai can’t afford instability at this juncture. Lot of infrastructure projects has already been delayed. The recent results are being seen as the topsy turvy voting trend. Many experts are of the opinion that such experiments by the people in the state may not be conducive for the development of Maharashtra.
The recently inaugurated Mumbai Metro Yellow Line 2A are example of already delayed mega infrastructure projects. Blame it to the political turmoil surrounding the Aarey controversy during the reign of Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister.
Mumbaikars have always waited with patience to see their city find out solutions but not now when the city is exploding with so many issues. The nearly 20 million Mumbai residents who struggle every day be it the ones living in posh high rises or one-room slum tenements have issues of their own. What do Mumbai residents long for? Clean and garbage-free streets, open sidewalks for pedestrians, neighborhood open spaces and parks. They also look for buses and trains that are plentiful and don’t ask for life in exchange in rush hours each day of travel. Mumbaikars look for clean enough water and air to breathe without concern, schools and colleges that don’t rush students in shifts like factories, and decent homes that can be rented or purchased at reasonable prices without having to mortgage one’s life to get one. These have been the basic demands,
Although it appears to be a daunting list of demands of the common public but, it is actually a simple list of needs, not fantasies, which can improve millions of people’s quality of life.
Mumbai in particular and Maharashtra in general require to catch up with the lost time. All that was consumed due to unforeseen issues in the past few years ranging from the unprecedented Covid pandemic to the unfulfilled promises to affected farmers due to unseasonal rainfall. The issue of power cuts for default payments, crime against women on rise has also plagued the state and city. The Parambir Singh-Sachin Vaze episode was another dark chapter in Maharashtra politics.
The city of dreams deserves much better from its administration. At their most basic level, all cities are “dream factories” because they give migrants of all classes and backgrounds the opportunity to realise their dreams and transform the lives they left behind in their home villages.
Despite Uddhav Thackeray saying that the educated class has rejected the ruling alliance, it needs to been whether the results of the MLC elections impact BMC elections or not? But Maharashtra and Mumbai in particular deserve to come out of the conundrum
