BMC polls: Congress hopes pinned on Muslim, North Indian, backward class voters

  • | Tuesday | 21st February, 2017

Muslim voters and the backward class voters hold the key in deciding the Congress’s fate in the municipal corporation polls. Senior Congress poll strategists admit that the party’s poll campaign should have been more aggressive in exposing the Shiv Sena-BJP misrule. But infighting within its ranks and the high-voltage battle between the Shiv Sena and the BJP has cost the Congress crucial campaign space. The Congress initially ran a campaign where the “unrest” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation was a significant element. The Congress, annihilated in the general and assembly polls in Mumbai in 2014, is desperate to use the civic elections as a rebuilding platform.

Muslim voters and the backward class voters hold the key in deciding the Congress’s fate in the municipal corporation polls. The Congress, annihilated in the general and assembly polls in Mumbai in 2014, is desperate to use the civic elections as a rebuilding platform. But infighting within its ranks and the high-voltage battle between the Shiv Sena and the BJP has cost the Congress crucial campaign space. The party seniors are cautiously optimistic of a decent outing. They are hoping to pick up at least 52 seats, which was the tally in 2012. Watch what else is in the news Besides minorities and the backward classes, the party has been aggressively wooing the north Indian lower-middle-class voter, which swung the BJP’s way in 2014. The party believes that there has been a meltdown in BJP’s support in this segment. It wants to cultivate this voter to supplement its tally. At the beginning of the campaign, the Congress was wary that the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) would make a major dent in its Muslim vote bank. But Congress sources are now claiming that the AIMIM factor would be limited to just a few pockets. The party has set its eyes on a good show in Sion Koliwada, Dharavi, Malad (West), Kurla, and Mankhurd assembly segments where there is a sizeable minority and backward class voters. With a lot riding on the elections, the party has fielded civic election veterans on a number of seats while retaining a majority of the sitting party corporators. Party insiders, however, conceded that the campaign had failed to effectively tap the upper-middle-class voter. Senior Congress poll strategists admit that the party’s poll campaign should have been more aggressive in exposing the Shiv Sena-BJP misrule. The last minute defections too hurt the poll prospects. But the party is still hoping that the “serious anti incumbency” against the saffron alliance betters its chances. The Congress initially ran a campaign where the “unrest” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation was a significant element. But as the war of words intensified between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in the final leg of campaigning, the Congress attacked the saffron alliance more aggressively on local issues.

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