What do
we know? What have we learnt? Two questions that would be in the minds of many
of the people from Chiplun who would be casting a vote on 27th
November 2016 for the Municipality election. Apparently to which the answer
would be ‘nothing’. Writing about a local issue seems like an appetite change
for me. Anyway, I would handle it in a satisfactory way I hope!
In the
midst of a nationwide, economy shattering process of demonitisation of currency
notes, we have a very small scale elections in the not so interiors of
Maharashtra. From the outside, this may look very insignificant, as far as the
mainstream politics of Maharashtra and India is concerned. Needless to say, it
isn’t. Of course, this will not replace the CM of the state, nor would it bring
any ‘reforms’. But what is politics if not observed from the ground? Apparently,
everything happens here, at the ground level. Right now, we have Municipality
elections happening in the smaller cities of Maharashtra from various districts
from the state.
So why
is that, the city with a meer population over 1 lakh should grab eyeballs? There
are many reasons for that. Not just because it is the central destination
between Goa and Mumbai, not just because it has the potential of becoming an
industrial hub in the near future, not just because it has high tourism value,
not because it has those green hills cutting through the beautiful Vashishthi,
not just because it is one of the biggest exporter of cash crops, and
definitely not because it is my home town; but because of the sheer intensity
of the level of politics here. It goes down many layers, and any person who
likes politics and has an understanding about the society would find this mouthwatering.
The simultaneous elections happening in the state aren’t getting much of a
coverage and salience from the media and from the politicians themselves. The Chiplun
election is dirty, fascinating and interesting all at the same time.
To make
things a little more visible for the people out of Chiplun and who would be
reading this, here are some things you need to know. Chiplun Municipality is
majorly run by the NCP, with Congress being a small yet under-performed partner
from the last five years. Shiv Sena is strong in some areas, while the presence
of BJP is as powerful as Hillary Clinton’s presence in the United States
politics right now, which is needless to say negligible. But that’s the case
with pretty much every civic body in the state where now all of them are
contesting independently. So what makes Chiplun a stand out amongst the other
elections? Well, the presence of a fifth and probably a stronger unit than all
the above mentioned makes things interesting. The Shahar Vikas Aghaadi which
has been a child born out of disagreements and problems amongst the NCP leaders. It is unofficially headed by NCP’s Konkan strongman, NCP's Ex-Chief of State, MLA
Bhaskar Jadhav. It has its roots and support from the majority of the people
from the Ratnagiri district. A month back, orders came from NCP supremo that
the elections would preside under the leadership of Ramesh Kadam, a former MLA
who has been an arch rival of Jadhav since the longest of time. This decision
came as a surprise for some as all the rights regarding the party policies in
the Ratnagiri and also to some extent Sindhudurg district were given to Bhaskar
Jadhav except for Chiplun which was given to Kadam who has been playing hide
and seek with the NCP, lately. So now, the disappointed Jadhav supporters who
were expecting a ticket from NCP this time, decided to take a rather cunning
way out(which is explained later in the article) and end the small yet deadly
regime of Ramesh Kadam which has been grasping the city.
So, now
that everyone has an idea about what goes into Chiplun politics and why it interests
me so much might be clear. Now let us just look into the civic side of the
matter keeping all the politics aside. From the past five years there has been
a Ramesh Kadam dominated administration controlling the city. The problems
which the city faces are pretty much mutual to other towns, except for the fact
that here the problems increase tenfold. The roads are pathetic, there is not a
single public property which is looked after efficiently, markets are always
crowded and the list won’t end till midnight. All the development that has
taken place is in the private sector where the Municipality has zero rights to
claim credits, thus overall the condition of the administration is all over the
place to say the least. I would not brag about the entire situation just like
every other local would, although I really want to. Still, I would constrain
myself as there are various angles to look at regarding the politics and
administration is concerned.
But we
are in India and no one wins an election based on the doings and undoings of
the past. Now, coming back to the election, the Bhaskar Jadhav backed NCP group
is of course not going to support the contesting NCP candidates, so what do
they do now? Directly and indirectly they support the second most powerful
party which happens to be Shiv Sena (also Congress but that’s just my
assumption). On paper, Bhaskar Jadhav is out of politics as far as this
election goes but it is an open secret about Jadhav’s strongmen rooting for the
demise of Ramesh Kadam administration in the city. The desire to gush out Kadam
from the Municipality is justified both at political and institutional or
administrative level. Let us look at the political side first; Ramesh Kadam has
been seen joining the SKP in the 2014 election against NCP, his decline in the
state and city politics is quite visible, the dirty politics in the previous
elections where he made many non-party candidate win against the Jadhav
supporters, and many other things which I can name were happening under the
watch of Kadam. Now the work of Municipality; I shouldn’t mention an earlier
stated fact again in the same article, but just the overall situation of the
public space is abominable, to say the least. What adds is that the administration
turned down the money which was granted by the state government when Jadhav
headed the urban development’s ministry of state. This was to shy away Jadhav
from the credits he could receive for the city’s development. The Shiv Sena has
a role to play here, but it also is questionable that if they come to power,
how much authority would actually be in their hands when we know who really
holds the strings of the puppet drama.
Well,
all said and done, people of Chiplun have the tendency to surprise in every
election. They have shown blind faith in the current authorities on a more than
an understandable occasion. So I would not play my money on anyone of them as
of now, but still overall, the Shahar Vikas Aghaadi backed Sena looks powerful
in the whole scenario.
Also, I
would add that the understanding of small town elections and their actual
political impact is very different from understanding national level politics. Many
things go by where every ward says an altogether different story to the voters,
where speculating the verdict is difficult, where the flow of money is hard to
stop, where personal grudges probably make the basis of an election rather than
an issue. Understanding these small scale elections is different, yet a very
important task. Elections speak volumes about a certain section of people. I
feel, studying elections is very important in order to do a subaltern research.
Anyway,
all the best to the people of Chiplun and hope they do select the proper
candidates.
