BJP's Poonam Mahajan Frames BMC Polls Around Development, Rejects 'Divisive Politics' in IANS Interview

On Sunday, January 11, senior BJP leader Poonam Mahajan sat down with the news agency IANS to talk about the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, which are being held after a long gap. Her message was compact: "People don't want divisive politics, they want development." The interview ranged from alliances to religion, migration and family-run parties, and almost every claim in it is her own account, with no independent verification attached.

Mahajan said that although 29 civic elections are under way across Maharashtra, political attention settles on Mumbai because it is the financial capital. She described the city's hard work as a major contributor to the strength of both the state and the country. The BJP, she said, is treating the contest with great seriousness and making extra efforts, with the aim of extending the development vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Asked about the alliances of the MNS with Shiv Sena (UBT), and of Congress with the VBA, she called them an "alliance of self-survival" rather than one of convenience. She said the BJP forms alliances for development and progress, and noted that it had been with Shiv Sena (UBT) on the ideology of Hindutva since 2019. She also accused earlier arrangements of letting development slide while self-interest took priority. On the question of whether the opposition tie-up speaks for the Marathi Manus, she pointed back to 2019, when she said Fadnavis was deliberately removed in a drama staged by Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and others together. She added that she does not see the same situation now and sees public love and support for her side.

On 'vote jihad', she said the opposition fights elections by putting religion in front, and that the phrase was visible in 2019 too. She said Shiv Sena joined Congress in the name of secularism, which she called untrue. As an example she cited Vasai-Virar, where she said a song about 'Azad Kashmir' was played at a small shopkeeper's place and a complaint was filed. She also said girls are being misdirected and forced into marriage. Her argument was that the opposition raises such issues because it lacks a development agenda.

On migration, responding to a remark by Nitesh Rane that illegal Bangladeshi migrants will be sent out of Maharashtra, she said Mumbai carries the burden of the whole country. She said Bangladeshi or Rohingya intruders who arrive illegally, and are helped to settle by Congress, must be stopped. "We have all the data," she said, and promised they would be thrown out, though she did not present the figures. She also raised atrocities against Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, and said India welcomes guests as gods but not illegal intruders.

She was dismissive of Aditya Thackeray, who has been seen mimicking Fadnavis, calling it sad for a youth leader to do so and urging him to fight on important issues and respect seniority. Of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, she said he is a sharp and experienced speaker who follows divide-and-rule politics, that his party is an offshoot of Congress working only for Muslim interests, and that she does not consider him important. She then made what she called the party's promise: Mumbai's Mayor will be a Hindu Marathi, man or woman, a son or daughter of the city's soil.

On family dominance, Mahajan said many parties in Maharashtra have become family-run organisations, which means family rule rather than people's rule. She said Vasai-Virar was run as a family stronghold for 35 years, as if under Article 370. She said local body elections are more complex than Assembly or Lok Sabha polls because parties are larger, each has its own cadre, candidates multiply, and even alliances face strain.

For Vasai-Virar, she said the BJP's work from 2014 to 2019 aimed at comprehensive change: extending the coastal road, linking it to Vadhavan Port, bringing an airport to Virar, with the bullet train also passing through the area. The thing to watch is whether campaign talk on religion and migration gives way to the development agenda she describes as the core of Mumbai's civic race.