Mockery of principles-based politics in Maharashtra’s municipal corporation elections

Mumbai – After being denied party tickets in municipal corporation elections, aspirants across the state have created chaos by alleging that candidatures were given in exchange for money. Discarding party loyalty, incidents that brought politics and political parties into disrepute were witnessed across Maharashtra—ranging from hurling abuses at party leadership, vandalising party offices, attempting self-immolation, showing black flags to senior leaders, to chasing vehicles carrying nomination forms. These numerous incidents have sparked widespread criticism on social media of the state’s selfish, on-sale, principle-less, and filthy politics.

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1. In several cases, workers who had toiled for the party were denied tickets, and upon being denied, party loyalty was cast aside. In Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, BJP workers alleged that Minister Atul Save and MP Bhagwat Karad gave tickets to outsiders while ignoring loyal party workers. They even stopped Save and Karad’s vehicles and abused them in obscene language. One worker attempted self-immolation.

2. In Nashik, aspirants chased the vehicles of BJP city president Sunil Kedar and MLA Seema Hire after being denied nomination forms. Aspirants who did not get tickets in Nashik also locked the Congress party office.

3. In Nagpur, after NCP office-bearer Avinash Pardikar was denied a ticket, his supporters smashed TV sets and window panes at the NCP office. In another incident, BJP supporters protested outside Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s residence and attempted self-immolation after aspirants were denied tickets.

4. Workers of the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction protested outside Uddhav Thackeray’s Mumbai residence, ‘Matoshree,’ after being denied tickets. In Dahisar, Shiv Sena MLA Prakash Surve was shown black flags by his own workers after a seat was allotted to the BJP as part of an alliance.

5. In Parli (Beed), clashes broke out among NCP workers over nomination forms. In Kolhapur, senior Congress office-bearers who were sidelined raised slogans outside the party office.

6. In Solapur, BJP’s senior office-bearers, after being ignored, took out a march to the party’s district office and vandalised it.

7. In Chandrapur, many workers from both the BJP and the Congress resigned from their parties after being denied tickets.

8. In Pune, in Ward No. 36(A), when two Shiv Sena candidates were issued nomination forms, one candidate snatched the other’s form and ate it.

In this manner, hundreds of incidents occurred across the state as aspirants created chaos after being denied tickets.

Fake BJP nomination form in Mumbai

In Mumbai’s Ward No. 173, after being denied a BJP ticket, Shilpa Keluskar submitted a fake nomination form to the Election Commission. The Election Commission even validated this nomination form, resulting in two BJP candidates in the ward. BJP’s Mumbai president Amit Satam has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission in this regard. The BJP had initially issued a nomination form to Shilpa Keluskar but later withdrew it. It has been stated in the complaint that using this withdrawn form, she prepared a fake nomination form.

Editorial Perspectives

• After being denied tickets, aspirants from all parties resorted to violent acts such as vandalising party offices, attempting self-immolation, and abusing party leadership—creating utter chaos !
• Will such selfish politicians ever work for the welfare of society ?
• If those who take the law into their own hands merely because they were denied tickets manage to get elected in the future, how will they behave then? It is better not to even imagine! Such individuals should be permanently barred from contesting elections.