BMC Elections: BJP wants separate manifesto for Civic polls

By Varun Singh – Mid-Day

Promises made ahead of polls by politicians are rarely kept, but the BJP feels it’s important the people know who’s making them. So, its coalition with the Shiv Sena and RPI (A) notwithstanding, the BJP, for the first time, is all set to release a separate manifesto for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. According to party insiders, a joint manifesto often ends up appearing as the mouthpiece of one party while the voice of others in the alliance is lost.

“We have formed a team comprising 12 people, who are currently developing the manifesto. It will highlight all the work done by us in the last five years. We will focus on important points covered from our previous manifesto and will ensure that our achievements are also noticed by the people,” said a BJP insider.

Teamwork

The party has even formed a 12-member team that’s working on the manifesto and their final meeting would be on January 10, where the layout and other details would be discussed.  The committee is being headed by ex-MLA Hemendra Mehta and consists of senior members like Ashish Shelar, Bhalchandra Shirsat, Shailaja Girkar, Atul Bhatkalkar and a few others.

When quizzed, Vivekanand Gupta, secretary, Mumbai BJP, said, “The party is coming out with a vision document for the city of Mumbai — how the city should be and how the party is going to function. We will also have a joint manifesto, but right now there are people in the party who do want a separate one to be there.”

BJP has 28 corporators heading important committees like improvement, tree, education and women & child welfare. For the last five years even the deputy mayor in the BMC has been from the party. Now, BJP is keen on highlighting all these posts and portfolios held by its members and the work done. The party is even planning to get the opinion of the youth on what kind of development and enterprises they want to see happening in the city.

Guarded response

The allies are, naturally, wary. “We will soon have a meeting, where Uddhav Thackeray, Gopinath Munde, Sudhir Mungantiwar and I will be present. Our main motive would be to have a single manifesto for the alliance.  If there are different manifestos, it would lead to confusion amongst the public as the development agenda has to be the same. I am for one manifesto for the whole coalition,” said RPI(A) chief Ramdas Athawale.

“There should only be one manifesto in an alliance. However, what Uddhavji decides would be final,” said Shiv Sena MLA Abhijit Adsul.

 

Source: Mid-Day

BMC Elections 2012: Civic polls to test Uddhav’s leadership

 

Makarand Gadgil, makarand.g@livemint.com

 

The forthcoming municipal elections in Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital, and nine other cities in Maharashtra hold the key to the fortunes of Shiv Sena​ executive president Uddhav Thackeray, under whose leadership the party lost two consecutive assembly elections—in 2004 and 2009.

The Sena, in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party​ (BJP), has controlled the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) since 1985 except during 1991-94.

Control of MCGM is critical since it has a budget of Rs.20,417 crore, much more than that of several smaller states such as Goa, Mizoram and Manipur. Though a little over 50% of the municipal body’s funds are consumed by salaries and other administrative expenses, the ruling combine still controls funds that run into thousands of crores for “developmental work”. Losing control of this can cost Thackeray dearly, according to political observers, who say that a failure to get elected could push many Sena members into shifting their loyalties to estranged and more aggressive cousin Raj Thackeray​’s Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS).

After the last assembly elections in 2009, the Sena was relegated to the fourth position and won fewer seats than its alliance partner BJP. That meant it had to concede the position of leader of the opposition in the state assembly to the BJP. In Mumbai, while the Sena won four assembly segments, the MNS secured six. The MNS won 13 seats in the assembly elections and is estimated to have spoiled the chances of Sena-BJP candidates in at least 35-40 seats.

Much depends on whether the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party​ (NCP), coalition partners at the central and state level, manage to strike an alliance for the local polls. In 2007, both parties contested civic polls separately, helping the Sena-BJP combine win 110 seats in a House of 227. This will also mark the first major electoral test for Prithviraj Chavan, since becoming chief minister in November, 2010. He’s keen to consolidate his position by wresting MCGM from the Sena, as is his deputy Ajit Pawar​, who now virtually controls the NCP in the state.

To counter the splitting of the vote of the “Marathi Manoos” (native of Maharashtra) with the MNS, the Shiv Sena has roped in a third partner—the Ramdas Athavale faction of the Republican Party of India​ (RPI), which represents the neo-Buddhist section of Maharashtra’s Dalit population. Dalits form 18.5% of Maharashtra’s population. Of this, 7.5% are neo-Buddhists.

If the Congress and the NCP form an alliance, the Sena will find it difficult to retain control over MCGM as the party is not only facing anti-incumbency but also a division of its core constituency, said columnist and political commentator Pratap Asbe.

If the Shiv Sena loses control over MCGM, a large section of the party’s cadre and lower-rung functionaries will switch loyalties to MNS chief Raj Thackeray, Asbe said.

Noted Dalit thinker and writer Gangadhar Pantavane said the “Dalit population has historically eyed Hindu supremacist forces with suspicion. Just because Athavale has joined hands with these forces, his followers won’t necessarily vote for the Sena-BJP.”

Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP and spokesman Sanjay Raut dismissed the prospect of defeat. “Because of our track record on the developmental front, we are sure we will manage to secure a simple majority with help from our allies.”

Source: Live Mint

Civic Polls 2012: Election expenses for Maharashtra civic polls hiked

 

 

 

Mumbai: Maharashtra’s state Election Commission on Tuesday significantly enhanced the expense limits for the forthcoming civic, zila parishad and gram panchayat elections.

The decision was announced by state election commissioner Neela Satyanarayan after she announced the schedules for the zila parishad and gram panchayat (Feb 7) and civic bodies poll (Februry 16), across the state.

For the A-grade Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the expense limit has been hiked from Rs 135,000 to Rs 500,000. Each candidate in B-grade corporations like Pune and Nagpur will now be able to spend Rs 400,000 from the existing limit of only Rs 100,000.

For C-grade municipal corporations like Thane, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, the limit has been increased from Rs 100,000 to Rs 400,000.

Similarly, it will be Rs 300,000 (from existing Rs 100,000) in D-grade civic bodies like Ulhasnagar, Solapur, Akola and Amravati.

In the Zila Parishad elections, a new expense limit, from existing Rs 60,000 to Rs 300,000 has been allowed while for Gram Panchayat Samitis, it has been upped from Rs 40,000 to Rs 200,000.

In yet another major relief, the travel expenses of important leaders or star campaigners would not be included in the election expenses of the candidate for whom they campaign during the elections.

All contesting candidates would be required to submit the day’s expense accounts related to polls and campaigning by 2 pm the following day.

 

Source: IBN Live

BMC Elections 2012: The cost of BMC polls: Rs500cr!

Published: Friday, Jan 6, 2012, 8:45 IST
By Shubhangi Khapre | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

The air in Mumbai is abuzz with the battle for the municipal corporation. With the civic polls scheduled for February 16, political parties are busy devising strategies and roping in star campaigners to lure voters and eventually rule the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Conservative estimates by political managers of the Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) suggest that the battle for 227 seats will be a whopping Rs500-crore affair.

The state’s chief election commissioner Neela Satyanarayan said as per laid norms, candidates contesting the civic polls can spend Rs1.5 lakh each. She added that the amount has been increased to Rs5 lakh taking into account the inflation in the past five years. However, the parties are amused with the ceiling and have termed it impractical.

They openly admit that it is impossible for them to adhere to the limit set by the state election commission. Leaders who control the purse strings of major parties admitted that the average funds required per candidate is Rs1 crore.

With the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance sure to contest all 227 seats and the Congress and NCP likely to do the same (if they form an alliance), there would be 454 serious candidates in the fray. At Rs1 crore per candidate, the poll budget touches Rs454 crore without even considering other players.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, too, has threatened to field 227 candidates. However, even if it concentrates only on its strongholds and fields 15-25 candidates it will still spend crores because of its aggressive style of campaigning. Lesser known players such as the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have smaller stakes but high budgets.

In a tactical move, mainstream parties and their alliances often deploy the services of extras to make a dent into each other’s vote bank. Such candidates spend at least Rs25-30 lakh each.

Estimates show there are at least 125 such candidates in the fray. “Earlier, we would pacify our supporters with a plate of bhel puri or vada pav. Today, they demand a sumptuous lunch and dinner with chicken/mutton biryani and drinks. The changing lifestyle of our leaders and workers has resulted in the poll expenditure shooting up drastically. Also, the cars used during our campaign trails are top models complete with air-condition,” said a sitting corporator on condition of anonymity.

A sitting corporator from the Congress concurs. “We have to reach out to maximum people during the 12 days of campaigning. The amount spent on petrol and diesel itself is Rs25-30 lakh. We also have to manage unlimited number of rallies and meetings. The cost of publicity material for each ward is Rs20 lakh,” he said. “We also seek help from star campaigners/ central ministers/ state ministers who travel only by helicopters. A private plane costs Rs75,000 per hour.”

Senior BJP leader Madhav Bhandari said the election commission’s ceiling is aimed at restricting excessive expenditure during the polls. “The purpose is good, but political parties have to provide additional funds to ensure an effective campaign aimed at luring voters spread across different wards,” he said.

“Mumbai is the country’s financial capital and parties have to come up with various techniques to reach out to voters. The aggressive campaign comes at a price. Almost 50% of the funds are used on transportation and the remaining on publicity material and rallies,” a senior cabinet minister from the NCP told DNA.

Sources in the election commission told DNA that the poll budgets often run into crores and exceed the prescribed limit for individual candidates. This is because the funds released for campaigning under the party banner are not accounted for in the expenditure of a candidate. “A candidate has to provide details of his expenditure which should not exceed Rs5 lakh. But he is not bound to explain the whopping expenditure incurred by his party on star campaigners,” said an election commission official.

With corruption being the buzzword in the country at present, NCP chief Sharad Pawar has asked his ministers and party officials to cut down on their expenditure for the polls. “We have been bluntly told to cut down cost on hiring private planes for our rallies,” said a senior NCP minister.

Mumbai citizens “humbly request” Anna to hold his fast on the outskirts of Mumbai

Several prominent citizens of Mumbai under the banner of the Citizens Action Forum have ‘humbly reqested’ Anna Hazare to hold his fast and protest on the outskirts of Mumbai instead of the MMRDA grounds at Bandra or the Azad Maidan in southern Mumbai city.

Flynn Remedios, spokesperson for the Citizens Action Forum said, “Mumbai is already congested and most Mumbaikars find it very difficult to reach their place of work on time. The local train network is already choc-a-bloc and lakhs of commuters who come in from as far as Virar and Ambernath on the Central and Western Railway lines are packed like sardines during the peak hours.  If thousands of people gather at the Bandra Kurla grounds or even Azad Maidan for the protest, the local train network will snap. Mumbaikars – who fully support Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement – will be greatly inconvenienced and this could also hamper the protest as the Government may find it an excuse to put restrictions on Anna’s campaign. There will be a law and order problem, besides drinking water and sanitation requirements are not available at both the venues. We request Anna to reconsider his decision to hold the protest and fast in Mumbai and instead move the venue to the outskirts of Mumbai or some other adjacent place. Since Mumbai is high on the list of terrorists, a large number of people gathering at one venue adds to the security threat to the city.”

BMC Elections 2012: MP Milind Deora’s official website has no contact details

Youth leader very difficult to reach, say many.

By Flynn Remedios – MumbaiWire.in

Dynamic Minister of State for Communications and IT, youth leader and South Mumbai MP Milind Deora’s official website at milinddeora dot com does not have any contact details or office address. MumbaiWire.in tried contacting Milind Deora for an interview regarding the forthcoming BMC elections in Mumbai but in spite of three days of effort trying to track Milind Deora we were unable to reach him. We understand that as MoS for Communications and IT, Mr Deora is very busy meeting the likes of Mukesh Ambani and others, but we wish Mr Deora had mentioned at least an email id on his website which we could communicate with him on. Even the Youth Forum option on the website does not work, unless one is logged into Facebook.

Comparatively, older and senior Congress leaders were more ‘reachable’ than the younger lot, MumbaiWire.in has found out in its pre-poll research.

MumbaiWire Ms & Mrs Mumbai to be held on Dec 23

The glamour event MumbaiWire Ms & Mrs Mumbai beauty pageant and fashion show will be held at a 5-star hotel at Goregaon on the 23^rd December and will be graced by the who’s-who of the fashion and film industry in Mumbai. Announcing this event, Flynn Remedios of MumbaiWire said, “We have been associated with the Miss Mumbai event for the last 20 years, which was originally started by media baron Nari Hira of the Magna group. It used to be sponsored by Island magazine – where I worked and have very fond memories of – and we wanted to revive the glamour event. This year we will have two categories one for married and one for unmarried contestants. The age range for the unmarried category is 17-27 years while that for the married category is 18-38 years.” The glamour event is being organised by http://www.MumbaiWire.in, a news blog and portal for and by Mumbaikars with an eye on the BMC Elections 2012.

Sources said that top Bollywood actors and former actors including Sonali Bendre, Bipasha Basu and Madhuri Dixit have been approached to grace and judge the beauty pageant.  Elaborating on the event, Flynn Remedios said, “Since the BMC elections are scheduled to be held in February 2012 and Mumbai has 227 wards, we will request each of the 227 wards to send two contestants – one in each category for the event.”

Fashion designer and stylist Umair Zafar is the official stylist for the event. More details will be released shortly, said Remedios adding that the entire event will be filmed and telecast on a TV channel at a later date. A Reality Show wherein the 20 finalists will be “jailed” together will also be part of the event.

MumbaiWire.in report finds MP Gurudas Kamat most “people friendly”

Online Media to play a major role in forthcoming BMC elections 2012

By Frank Franklyn – MumbaiWire.in

Member of Parliament from the Mumbai North West constituency Gurudas Kamat is one of the most “people friendly, proactive and approachable” politicians, a MumbaiWire poll has revealed. Surprisingly and contrary to expectations, the newer and younger lot of politicians does not fare well in the MumbaiWire poll. “Younger politicians are not as approachable and proactive as may be expected. Probably, they lack the farsightedness of a seasoned politician and leader like Gurudas Kamat,” said Flynn Remedios of MumbaiWire.  As part of its special citizen awareness initiatives for the forthcoming BMC Elections 2012, MumbaiWire announced that it will present a “Report Card” on each MP, MLA and Corporator in Mumbai.

“We are working with about 20 NGOs and other Civic Action Groups and have over 2000 activist-volunteers who are helping us in this exercise. These 2000 volunteers who are from different wards in Mumbai and cover the entire gamut of 227 seats will report their findings to our central “Evaluation Committee” which will then prepare a “Report Card” on each person.

This election, online media and social viral networking will play a major role and social networking sites like Facebook will be extensively used to reach out to younger voters, explains Remedios, stating that SMS messaging has already been used in the past with candidates shooting out lakhs of messages to voters in the earlier elections. Sadly most corporators and MLAs do not have their own websites and whatever data is available on their work is only on sites run by NGOs. Corporators should focus on online media and put updates of their work online. Given the fact that mobile internet is very cheap in Mumbai with special schemes offering unlimited mobile internet access for as little as Rs 50 a month, candidates should go online, and create micro sites for their constituency. It is very easy and simple to create a micro site or a simple blog-driven website that can be used to highlight the work done by a sitting corporator. Unfortunately, politicians prefer to put up big (and illegal) hoardings in their constituencies with their mugs glaring at viewers but will not spend some money on online media,” laments Remedios.

MumbaiWire will host micro updates from local Mumbai corporators on its Facebook page and Twitter accounts to keep Mumbaikars updated of the work done by their corporators. It will also similarly report on citizens complaints of promises unfulfilled and false commitments made by corporate on its news blog to give citizens a crystal clear picture of each corporators performance.

BMC Elections 2012: BMC to buy its way into LBS road-widening

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has finally cleared the decks for widening the congested LBS Marg, that stretches from Sion to Mulund, by deciding to buy out at ready reckoner rates the over 100-year-old structures.

The LBS Road or the Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg is the biggest and the most congested road stretch in the eastern suburb with many a structure limiting the road’s width to a mere 60ft-90ft. In fact, these structures had been posing as the main hurdle in the road’s widening. However, the civic body, which aims to increase the road’s width to 120 ft, could not begin work as the structure owners were reluctant to shift to areas offered by the BMC.

According to the BMC, there are over 1,200 structures that need to be removed. Many of the authorized structures are over 100 years old and the BMC must rehabilitate all. In face of stiff opposition by structure owners, the BMC has now made a provision of Rs300 crore for the structure owners in lieu of their structure space. “While 80% of structures are commercial, the rest are residential and the BMC doesn’t have that much alternative houses or shops to rehabilitate the occupants,” said a senior civic official.

“The procedure of buying out the owners will begin under the state policy of 1995 that concerns land acquisition for road-widening purposes,” said another official.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had abandoned the project after eight years and in 2008, they handed over the road to the BMC for maintenance. Also, the MMRDA had surveyed the structures and submitted a report to the BMC, which the latter rejected, saying “it did not match the records”.

Source: DNA

Jigna Vora is a split personality – a Jekyll and Hyde case says Flynn Remedios

 

Senior crime reporter Jigna Vora who was arrested recently by the Mumbai Crime Branch is a split personality, said a former colleage and senior journalist Flynn Remedios who was Jigna Vora’s colleague and senior at the Free Press Journal. “She is stupid at times and can be slightly revengeful but with due respect to her she is not a murderer. The Mumbai Crime Branch’s charges that she fed information to Chotta Rajan could be partly true, but I don’t think Jigna Vora had murder in mind. She must have done it to ensure that Rajan didn’t speak to J Dey in future or didn’t share information and news with him. But I wonder why she would send photographs of Dey’s motorbike to Rajan?”

Speaking about his former colleague, Flynn Remedios who is currently working on a book on Bollywood’s nexus with the Underworld says, “When we worked together in 2006 at the Free Press Journal, Jigna was a trainee. Yet she tried to “compete” with people many years her senior and would vie for a front page byline. And to do it she came up with sensational stories about extradited gangster Abu Salem and Monica Bedi. I remember one such story where she wrote that Abu Salem tried to send flowers to Monica Bedi on her birthday. It was something that could not be substantiated and there was no way for anyone to verify that. Maybe her “split personality” is due to the stress she has faced in her personal life. She is a single mother and I was one of the very few journalists who must have had the opportunity to visit her at her home. She was very ambitious and would go to any extent to get a front page byline. Jigna has gone through a lot of stress and turmoil in her personal life and nurses a deep instinct to excel, to be the best and to get way ahead of others much senior to her. Probably this was her motive and maybe she wanted to get some exclusive stories from Rajan by “bartering” some information on another journalist. Maybe she was used by Rajan or maybe there was some miscommunication. But I am sure Jigna Vora never had any intention of causing any sort of physical harm to anyone. She must have wanted Rajan to sever links and friendly ties with Dey. She probably wanted to get closer into Rajan’s inner circle. And that precisely turned out to be her Waterloo. She didn’t anticipate to what extent an underworld and insecure don like Rajan would go to when fed with negative information on someone whom he considered to be his friend. Jigna initially was a good friend but we kind of drifted apart when she ‘tried to compete’ with me,” says Remedios.

Flynn Remedios who has covered politics, business and crime in Mumbai for almost two decades will release his book titled Bollywood romances the Underworld in January of next year.