Mumbai: A quibble over Maharashtra’s development versus Gujarat’s and wooing the Marathi population have taken centre stage in the political rhetoric in Mumbai as the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) takes on the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha elections.
In its rallies, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders have been taunting the Narendra Modi-led government for allegedly taking away projects from Maharashtra to Gujarat and robbing Maharashtra’s and Mumbai’s people of jobs.
In a rally on the home turf of the undivided Shiv Sena — Dadar-Prabhadevi — a part of the Mumbai South Central constituency, Thackeray scion Aaditya Thackeray Wednesday pinned India’s Cricket World Cup loss on the Modi government’s decision to host the finals in Ahmedabad instead of at Mumbai’s landmark Wankhede stadium.
“They (ruling parties) keep levelling this allegation that the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) split because of ‘putra prem (love for the son)’ and ‘putri prem (love for the daughter)’. I am making a direct allegation that because of ‘putra prem’, our country lost the World Cup. You tell us, if the final had been in Mumbai, wouldn’t we have won?” he asked the assembled crowd, in a seeming reference to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
On the other hand, the BJP is not only actively wooing Mumbai’s Marathi population but also taunting Thackeray for having done nothing for the Marathi people in Mumbai.
Modi Wednesday held a roadshow in Mumbai for the first time, and despite picking Ghatkopar, an area with a significant Gujarati population, for his roadshow, he made it a point to post a message about the city’s Marathi population on social media platform X.
In the post, Modi said, “Mumbai can’t ever be imagined without its Marathi character. I am personally committed to boosting Marathi culture and popularising the Marathi language, especially among the youth. We will leverage the power of technology and make this happen.”
In its rallies, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has been targeting the Shinde-led Maharashtra government for letting projects that Maharashtra had been eyeing go to Gujarat since it came to power in 2022.
When the BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena were in an alliance, the BJP had cultivated a following in Mumbai’s Gujarati-speaking areas, while the undivided Shiv Sena continued to pull votes from the city’s Marathi bastions. The alliance splintered in 2019, while the Shiv Sena itself suffered a vertical split in 2022.
With this being the first major poll since then, there’s a tussle for Mumbai’s Marathi votes between the Shiv Sena (UBT) on one side and the BJP and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena on the other. As a result, ‘Maharashtra vs Gujarat’ has emerged as a major talking point.
On 20 May, the six constituencies of Mumbai will vote in the final phase of elections in Maharashtra.
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‘Jobs are being taken away to Gujarat’
In most of the Shiv Sena (UBT) rallies, Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray talks about the BJP’s “grudge” against Mumbai and Maharashtra and how the incumbent government in the state and the Centre shift projects such as Vedanta Foxconn’s semiconductor and display fabrication plant, the Tata Airbus project, a renewable energy equipment park and so on to Gujarat instead of having them in Maharashtra.
Speaking at a rally in Mulund in the Mumbai North East constituency Wednesday, Thackeray questioned why Modi did not plan his roadshow in Marathi-speaking areas such as Girgaum and Shivaji Park.
“All the investment that we managed to get to Maharashtra despite Covid-19, this government diverted all to Gujarat. Why didn’t the government say this is also our state? Isn’t Mumbai a part of the country? Isn’t Maharashtra a part of this country? Why so much injustice for us? Why do my young contemporaries not get jobs? There is only one reason. The BJP’s grudge against Maharashtra and Mumbai is coming in our way,” he said.
Similarly, speaking at a rally in Mumbadevi in the Mumbai South constituency Monday, Aaditya Thackeray said the BJP allegedly robbed Mumbai of a planned International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) and gave it to Gujarat’s GIFT City instead.
“After shifting it to Gujarat, instead of making another financial centre here, they shoved the land free of cost into the throat of the bullet train, which is of no use. Who is going to take the bullet train to Ahmedabad? Why couldn’t they build one to Nagpur, Pune or Delhi from Mumbai?” he said.
In such rallies, he has also said that he has nothing against Gujarat, likes the state as any other state in the country and has no problem with Gujarat itself attracting investments.
Speaking to ThePrint Thursday, party chief Uddhav Thackeray alleged that the Modi government wants to break Mumbai away from Maharashtra and accused the PM of polarising Mumbai on the Marathi vs Gujarati lines.
‘Mumbai will get the second IFSC’
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, in his election rallies, has blamed Uddhav Thackeray for the Marathi people leaving Mumbai.
Speaking to ThePrint on Wednesday, he said, “Whether it is the mill lands (where textile factories once operated) or the ‘chawls (tenements)’ of old Mumbai, or the cessed buildings (old buildings where tenants have to pay a tax for repairs), Uddhav Thackeray did not take even a single decision in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) because of which the Marathi ‘manoos‘ could stay here. All of them went away from Vasai-Virar.”
However, in the 1990s, a free in-situ rehabilitation project for eligible slum dwellers in Mumbai was started by the undivided Shiv Sena-BJP state government. The undivided Shiv Sena controlled the BMC in an alliance with the BJP till 2017, the year the term of the general body lapsed. Fresh elections are yet to take place.
Fadnavis also claimed credit for the Mumbai coastal road project, which the BMC is implementing, for which the Thackerays like to take credit. He, as CM, decided to implement the project and gave it to the civic body to complete, said Fadnavis.
The former CM also blamed the Thackerays for Mumbai’s loss of an IFSC to Gujarat. “When did the IFSC go? In 2012. When did the Percy Mistry Committee report recommend making an IFSC in Mumbai? In 2004. From 2004 to 2012, they were sleeping. In 2012, Modi ji took the IFSC (to Gujarat) during the (term of the) United Progressive Alliance government. Despite that, starting in 2015, I started fighting, saying, ‘No, I want this; it should be done in Mumbai’. But till then, Gujarat had gone miles ahead with the IFSC project,” he said.
“However, my success is that in 2019, ultimately, we got this promise (from the Centre) that though two IFSCs cannot be set up in the country at the same time, once the Gujarat IFSC is populated, Mumbai, Maharashtra, will get the second IFSC. I fought and did this. They (Thackerays) had governments. Why didn’t they do it?” he asked.
Fadnavis also claimed that the Shinde-led government has ensured Maharashtra tops the charts in attracting investments.
Knowing that a campaign on Mumbai’s loss of an IFSC to Gujarat might strike a chord in a city known for its financial services sector, Modi, in his X post, also committed to “cementing Mumbai’s position as India’s top financial services centre”.
He said, “We envision a Mumbai where bankers and investors from all over the world can operate here without any hassles. We want them to think India, think Mumbai.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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