New BMC has fewer Muslim corporators

By Rehan Ansari, TwoCircles.net,

Mumbai: The results of Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election were surprising and shocking for the Congress-NCP alliance and the Muslim community as well. The Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI combine retained power in the richest municipal body of the country for next five years. The number of Muslim corporators has come down to 23 from 27 in the last house. The winning alliance has no Muslim member.

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Of 23 Muslim winners, 11 are from Congress, 2 from NCP, 6 from Samajwadi Party and 4 are Independents. Samajwadi Party had fielded 64, maximum number of Muslim candidates but only six could win while Congress had fielded 32 and 11 have won.

The results show that lower turnout of Mumbaikers and division of secular votes caused heavy loss to the Congress-NCP ruling alliance of Maharashtra. Congress candidates came second on 69 places, NCP 23 and 15 SP Candidates lost the election with the margin of 100 or 150 votes.

Prithviraj Chauhan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra blamed Samajwadi Party for the division of secular votes that helped SS-BJP combine winning the election. However, the blame was rejected by Abu Asim Azmi, state president of Samajwadi Party. He said, “If they did not want the division of secular vote they should have contacted us for the coalition.”

Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) gained hugely as it dented Shiv Sena-BJP votes as well as Muslim and secular votes. MNS had fielded 9 Muslim candidates but none could win.

MNS has snatched seats of every other party, including the Congress, NCP and the BJP in this BMC election. MNS candidate from ward number 182 Virendra Tandel attracted Muslim voters, which were the traditional supporters of the Congress. In ward number 92, MNS candidate Gita Chavan won after Muslims voted for her instead of the Congress candidate. Similarly, the Congress candidate from ward numbers 13 and 184 suffered defeats at the hands of MNS candidates. Even at places such as ward number 97, where the party lost to the Congress, there has been a considerable increase in the party’s votes.

List of Muslim winners: