Mumbai: Congress Mumbai unit chief Sanjay Nirupam tendered his resignation to central leadership in Delhi on Thursday following the party’s poor showing in the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls. Despite a campaign run by several senior leaders of the party, the Congress failed to match its 2012 performance of 52 seats and ended with an all-time low of 31.
Mr. Nirupam in a press conference said that the defeat was a result of infighting within the party. “While I was campaigning for the party, many leaders were busy in putting efforts to defeat me. They do not understand that while attempting to harm me, they have hurt the party dearly.”
Though he did not name anyone, Mr. Nirupam was clearly referring to the party’s leaders in Mumbai such as former MP Gurudas Kamat, ex-MLA Kripashankar Singh and former minister Narayan Rane. He said these leaders initially refused to campaign for the party accusing Mr Nirupam of attempting to sideline them.
The results clearly indicate that the Congress’s base of north Indian voters had defected to the BJP. The party also failed to appeal to young voters and capitalise on the tussle between the Shiv Sena and the BJP by presenting itself as a third alternative.
MNS decimated
However, the Congress’s fate was better than the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which managed to win only seven seats. In 2012, the MNS won 28 seats and had swept the Sena stronghold of Dadar. This time, the party could not retain the seats despite concentrating its entire campaign there.
While no MNS leader spoke on record, many leaders accepted that the party had anticipated the result. An MNS leader said, “Raj saheb could not concentrate on campaigning due to his son’s ill-health. We had some organisational issues which could not be solved. At the same time, many of our corporators ditched us for the BJP. I think we will rethink the strategy and soon emerge with new power.”
The MNS also suffered because of discontentment among party workers. The party failed to hold on to power in Nasik and lost badly. It also performed poorly in Pune, where it was among the main opposition parties.
