Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has now-a-days turned a hotspot for political strategies with parties gearing for next year’s poll. It has now become crystal clear that the next NMC elections will be conducted on 4-member (ward) prabhag system. With possibilities as well as speculations on exact structure of prabhags gaining momentum, aspiring workers and leaders of various parties have got activated for contesting the polls.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken a lead in this regard and girded its loins for retaining the power. But as a well-planned strategy, the party has decided to sideline those Corporators who have been found inactive since the past five years and those who have won the elections consecutively for three years.
The next year’s NMC election is proving to be a challenge as well as ‘headache’ for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Surface Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari. And the first relief for these two top leaders came in the form of carving out of 4-ward prabhag system. With the system, the two can ‘handle’ the growing crowd of aspiring candidates.
Another ‘headache’ for the two leaders is ‘non-performance’ of the party, ruling the NMC since past 10 years. No work worth a mention has been done by the ruling party causing heartburns among citizens. In view of public anger, the party is leaving no stone unturned to win over the voters and also win the elections. In a meeting held few days back, the party pondered over sidelining the inactive Corporators and force them sit in homes. The few ‘inactive’ names were the subject of pondering are Dayashankar Tiwari, Mayatai Ivnate, Sandeep Jadhav, Sunil Agrawal, Ravindra Bhoyar, Munna Yadav et al.
At present, only a decision regarding formation of 4-ward prabhag system has been arrived at. However, the structure or composition of prabhags has to be decided later. Once the structure of prabhags comes to know, possibility of strategies and equations changing cannot be ruled out. Those aspiring candidates (Corporators) are nursing a mentality that if they did not get a chance to contest the elections under BJP banner now then there no possibility of them becoming Corporators ever again. On the other hand, if BJP spurns tickets, then the next NMC election will see a number of Independents in the fray. And the party is well aware of this paradox.
The way the BJP is drawing its strategies and gearing up to retain power in NMC, other parties such as Congress, Shiv Sena, NCP, BSP are feeling the heat. The problem with these parties is that they have dozens of leaders and groups. But still, the next NMC poll could prove gainful for Congress if, only if, all its leaders come under one roof and fight the elections under the leadership of one leader.
