Marathi Media On Municipal Bodies Elections

Marathi Media On Municipal Bodies Elections

By Prabhakar Kulkarni

Most of the Marathi dailies have liberally praised the BJP - Sena alliance for its victory in election of the prominent municipal corporations. Even editors normally critical of BJP and Shiv Sena have glorified the victory with analytical comments.

The victory is described as a valuable present to Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray on the occasion of his 75th birth anniversary. With this comment, the daily ¿Lokasatta¿ has criticized the ruling ¿democratic alliance government¿ in Maharashtra in general and the Congress and the Nationalist Congress party (NCP) in particular, for its failure to respond to public expectations. It harped on declaration of lack of funds in the public treasury without any attempt to mobilize revenue resources and collect funds. Consequently while a number of government-sponsored development schemes remained stagnant, even salary payments of teachers, professors and government employees were inordinately delayed. The growing discontent was reflected in the negative voting which turned to the Sena - BJP in the municipal elections. The NCP¿s victory in Ulhasnagar is interpreted as that of Pappu Kalani whose image in public is not consistent with the NCP¿s image, comments the editorial.

The daily ¿Lokmat¿ describes the victory as the ¿ Valentine Day¿ present to Mr. Bal Thackeray. The allegations of sexual harassment against the Congress leaders, whether true or strategically maneuvered, adversely affected the image of the Congress. Besides, the majority of Marathi voters still feel that Shivasena is their protector and a reliable party as compared to any other party. Another significant indication of the Sena¿s victory is that Uddhav Thackeray is the real successor of Sena leadership, comments the ¿Lokmat¿ editorial, which has also referred to the chief minister Mr. Deshmukh¿s comment in an election meeting, "The NCP¿s clock shows time 10.10 a.m. for the last two years, indicating that the clock has stopped" and adds that the NCP leader Sharad Pawar¿s strategic games have proved to be a failure.

The Sena mouth-piece ¿Samna¿ has harshly criticized the Congress and the NCP for their failure. Its editorial has damned the NCP¿s state home minister Chagan Bhujabal for associating with Pappu Kalani of TADA (Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Act) fame and demanded his resignation for permanently staying with Kalani¿s Ulhasnagar! The jubilant editorial dreams that the saffron flag would soon be hoisted on the state Legislative Assembly !

Both ¿Sakal¿ and ¿Kesari¿ of Pune have glorified the BJP - Sena alliance for the victory and blamed both the Congress and the NCP for their failure to unite and mud- throwing campaign against each other. This paved the way of success for the BJP - Sena alliance, the papers say. The Belgaum-based daily ¿Tarun-Bharat¿ has focused on the decreasing influence of both the Congress and the NCP and in the urban-based elections, the voters have cast their negative votes in favour of the BJP-Sena alliance. Both the Congress and the NCP have imaginary concepts of their plus points and influence over voters and hence they failed to come together and stage a united fight. On the contrary, both the BJP and Sena have realistic assessment that their alliance is much stronger than their separate entities. Hence their alliance could achieve the victory, comments the editorial.

The daily ¿Aikya¿ of Satara and ¿Pudhari¿ of Kolhapur in southern Maharashtra have blamed the Congress and the NCP for their campaign against each other and the NCP¿s victory in Ulhasnagar is interpreted as the personal influence of the ¿notorious gunda¿ Pappu Kalani and the NCP should not claim any credit for the victory. ¿Pudhari¿ has elaborately analyzed the political strategy and style of the NCP leader Sharad Pawar, whose influence is clearly declining and more so because of dishonest, unethical and unprincipled friendship with notorious Kalani as also Anand Dighe¿s followers in Thane. Chagan Bhujbal¿s aggressive campaign against both Sena