For a party owing much of its influence to its control of the cash-rich BMC, the Shiv Sena faces one of the toughest tests in the elections on February 21, where it has decided to go solo after snapping ties with ally BJP. Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray — the man at the heart of the gamble — says Mumbai needs an empowered Mayor and the party will not join hands with the BJP for power. He also denied that they were campaigning around emotive issues rather than bijli, sadak, paani.
Edited excerpts from an interview to DNA:
What was the trigger prompting the break with the BJP?
They are calling us corrupt, but they wanted an alliance. I broke the alliance, not the BJP. We were together for 20 years. I wanted to give them credit for the works done by us in these five years. They did not do much and were silent on issues like development, improvement in hospitals, schools and water supply were not their cup of tea. But now they claim we have made Mumbai into Patna, which defames both cities. They wanted 114 seats when we had worked hard for 20 years.
You are talking about health and education, but we are lagging behind in these sectors.
The improvements cannot be denied. No municipal corporation in India runs medical colleges. We are doing the state government's work by providing health and education services. The BMC is perhaps the only civic body to give tablets to students and launch virtual classrooms. Affordable dialysis, trauma care and molecular labs are not provided by other municipal bodies.
Despite ruling the BMC for over 20 years, why are you being forced to talk about your work?
Because others are denying it. That is why we launched the 'Did You Know?' campaign. Do you know that the (combined) length of drinking water and other pipelines (in the city) is equal to the distance from Mumbai to London and the drains in the city are 700 km long, more than the distance between Mumbai to Goa? In 2016, it rained for 120 days but there was no water logging like in Chennai, Delhi, or Ahmedabad. There are many agencies which work in Mumbai, but we are blamed for their lapses.
The erstwhile Shiv Sena-BJP launched the Mayor-in-council system. Do we need an empowered Mayor?
Mumbai's Mayor needs more rights. When it's an ornamental post, how can you blame us for alleged lapses? For works listed in our manifesto, the administration will study and implement them once we submit proposals.
Don't you control the civic administration? There are road, de-silting, parking scams.
We do not have complete control over the administration. The state government probed the alleged scams, but could not prove anything against us.
You said the state government is on notice, when will this notice period end? Will you stay in the government for five years?
You will know once it ends.
There are charges that Shiv Sena and BJP may tie up later for control of BMC, like in Kalyan-Dombivli.
We will not be joining hands with BJP. People are fed up and even non-Sena voters laud us and say the BJP must be taught a lesson.
What about the overtures by the MNS?
The polls are due on February 21. We have crossed this point.
