Coming together and putting up a united front seems a tough task for civil society groups ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. While there’s hue and cry over citizen corporators as it is believed that they will provide better governance in comparison to politicians, these groups, it seems, are a divided lot.
Lok Satta Party, which associates itself with citizen’s movement, formally tried to reach out to people through a press conference on Friday. A couple days ago, Mumbai 227, an initiative of city’s first citizen corporator Adolf D’Souza, had tried to reach out to citizens. Adolf was part of the Lok Satta movement until it became a political party. The two parted ways due to differences over the process of selecting and electing candidates.
While Mumbai 227 calls its process more grounded, localised and directly connects to voters, Lok Satta says there should be a set up to function properly.
“We are not with Mumbai 227 because it is a loosely built set up by well-intended citizens. However, it is not a solution to run a democracy. We understand this will lead to votes getting split, but there is no guarantee that people elected will work as a block after elections,” said Surendra Srivastava, Maharasthra president of Lok Satta Party.
“Romantic idea of citizenship is necessary but not sufficient. A party can have a symbol, anti-defection law, but unless a political formation is done, whatever work you do will be wasted,” said Lok Satta Party president Dr Jayaprakash Narayan.
Mumbai 227, on the other hand, feels that Lok Satta is no different from other parties. “One has to be an executive member for him to fight an election. Their final selection will be done by their party members and not the citizens, which is a key difference,” said Adolf. Other issues that divide the groups are funding and membership drives.
Professional Party of India, another outfit that associates itself with the citizen’s movement, states that they are undecided on the issue. “We are yet to decide but our inclination could be towards Mumbai 227,” said a party member said.
