Yes Shiv Sena has done it! They have won the Mumbai municipal elections! The Shiv Sena, BJP, RPI combine will rule Mumbai. The Congress has lost due to bad and tainted leadership of Kripashanker Singh who had lost the confidence of the people. Now the time has come for Shiv Sena and its allies to get down to business and live up to the expectations of the people of Mumbai. The city must be given full attention to bring it to the level of an international city with proper roads, footpaths and gardens. Water supply must be improved with proper drainage and sanitary facilities all over Mumbai.
All negative restrictions imposed on this city from Delhi must be removed, specially the CRZ rules which will obstruct the growth of this island city.
We need speedy corruption free approvals for new projects and growth of slums should be nipped in the bud with deterrent action.
Yes, ‘karun dakhavle’ should be reserved after the five-year term is completed!
— K.V. Satyamurty, Mumbai
‘Sab ke ‘Bal’ khade ho gaye’! Yes, the Shiv Sena supremo is back with a bang, as his alliance trounced the opposition comfortably in the recently held Mmbai civic polls. This victory must be sweetest for him, as everybody and his nephew had written off the saffron party due to their poor performance in the last few years. The fact that they have come back shows that the masses have faith in him and his party to deliver the goods in the future. This is a big opportunity for the Sena to streamline the problems the people face in this city. We hope our roads in the future would be a pleasure to drive on, and we really do need some clean water in our taps to drink. We hope to be more comfortable during the monsoons with drains checked, and flooding taken care of. Here’s wishing the ‘tiger’ and his team all the very best.
— Altaf H. Ladiwala, Bandra
The election results of the Mumbai municipal corporation and other civic bodies in the State should not surprise anybody. At the outset, we must applaud the slumdwellers and the weaker sections who have mustered strength to cast their vote.
In fact, these people are the ‘educated’ class who have shown maturity and responsibility by taking interest in the affairs of the Corporations, the States and the country. The ‘uneducated’, the irresponsible, are those who sat in their ivory towers, moved around in their swanky cars, went off on a mini-vacation from Thursday to Monday.
The ‘care-a-damn’ attitude of these people has brought the country to this sorry state of affairs. Voting seems to be apparently of no value to them. Election Day should not be declared as a public holiday. Instead, staggering of office timings should be enforced. Also, some sort of punitive service tax, which should increase as per income bracket, should be imposed on those who do not cast their vote, except for valid reasons.
— Harischandra Parshuram, Juhu
The BMC election verdict has clearly indicated that the ‘aam aadmi’ has a little more trust in the Saffron alliance than the so called ‘Indian’ plus ‘National’ Congress and so called ‘Nationalist’ Congress Party. The voters have noticed that the latter ‘Congress’ alliance is solely involved in variety of scams spread nationwide as well as worldwide worth billions and trillions of rupees and dollars (deposited in various foreign banks) since the past more than nine years. It has also proved itself ‘incapable’ to hang (till death) the anti-India terrorists like Qasab, Afzal Guru and Abu Salem since very long for ‘unknown’ reasons. People are now fed-up of such weak governance. Now it’s the paramount and also holy duty of the Saffron alliance to prove the voters’ trust in them to be worthy by giving the best services to the people, rich or poor equally, in each and every respect indiscriminately.
— Hansraj Bhat, Borivali
So the Shiv Sena has retained control of the city municipal corporation for the next five years. A pity. I am not saying that the Congress-NCP combine would have been any less indifferent to Mumbai’s problems or any less corrupt. All political parties are birds of the same feather. However, by re-electing the Shiv Sena-BJP, the people (or those who bothered to vote) have sent out a wrong message. They have, in effect, rewarded the BMC rulers for 12 years of massive corruption, inordinate project delays and escalations; and awarding important city contracts to the least qualified agencies, purely on the basis of the kickback received.
This undeserved victory will only encourage BMC corporators to be even more brazen while carrying out their nefarious activities. They will come to the conclusion that they need not make any effort to mend their ways or be more accountable to Mumbai’s citizens. The Shiv Sena has given the lie to Abraham Lincoln’s famous adage. They can indeed fool all of the people all of the time.
— Firoze Hirjikaka, Colaba
Though falling very much short of the magic number of 114, the Cong-NCP combine (seats 65) can still hope to capture power in the financial capital of the country. The entire block of the motley crowd of Independents (seats 26) can be lured into the fold with an offer of a few plum posts to a select few among them.
The MNS chief (with 29 seats) would be too eager to extend an unconditional outside support to such a combination, which makes a total of 125, a position of comfortable majority. The Cong-NCP can issue an “emotional” appeal to the MNS and Independents in the interests of preserving the “secular” fabric of the country, and to keep away the “communal” forces represented by the Saffron camp.
— Jorhat Singh, Kandivli
The civic election result of Mumbai city is the most disappointing as it is a hung house and SS-BJP alliance which is leading the table will rule the city with some help from other like-minded candidates for next five years and making further mess of the city. I strongly feel that it is the biggest defeat for the people of the city for not voting in large number and it looks that they have realized that whichever party comes to power, their lifestyle is not going to change as the inefficiency and corruption will continue to exist in the BMC and people will continue to suffer on daily basis in various sectors.
The urgent need of the hour is that to save the city from corrupt SS-BJP combine, the Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Independents must come forward and support Congress-NCP combine to take the control and rule the richest BMC which is in mess for last 12 years of SS-BJP rule, failing which financial city of country Mumbai will head for disastrous situation and for that matter all the citizens of the city will be fully responsible for making the city crumble further under the SS-BJP rule.
— Bhagwan Thadani, Mumbai