Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said his party will not compromise on values or for power. “We may not have got 100% mandate, and we may be just 82, but the numbers need not bother us. It’s not as if a big calamity is upon us. Party discipline is more important; our core values are more important to us. We are prepared to pay a price for it and we shall not compromise on that,” he said addressing the newly-elected corporators at the BJP’s Dadar office.
Mr. Fadnavis admitted that they had lost a lot of seats as their alliance partners did not fight on the BJP symbol. “The BJP got 28.5% votes even though we contested just on 195 seats. The Shiv Sena’s vote share is 29% even though they put up candidates in all 227 seats. Unfortunately, our alliance partners did not have their own symbols and hence ended up contesting almost as independents. So, though we had their support, it could not really benefit us.” He said the BJP had lost about 20-25 seats by a small margin and that the results had clearly shown that the public had given them a mandate.
The Chief Minister asked the corporators to not let power go up their head and be careful of the people around them. “Some people view winning an election as equivalent to winning a lottery ticket or a lifetime of blessings but people with such an attitude would not go anywhere without their posts. Don’t run behind posts, posts are not important... look upon this win as an opportunity to have a mark in history.”
The political arena, the Chief Minister felt, is akin to a slippery bathroom, where every step has to be taken firmly, based on strong values and convictions. He asked the corporators to understand that their win was because of their party. “If I did not have the BJP behind me, even I would not be able to win in my own constituency.”
Mr. Fadnavis said the biggest challenge before the corporators is to not involve in the existing corrupt system in the BMC and instead work towards setting up a system that would deliver services with transparency, efficiency and speed.
“The meeting, attended by all the 82 elected BJP corporators and party office bearers, was essentially to celebrate Marathi Language Day and to acquaint the corporators with the procedures and paperwork that need to be submitted to the BMC in a couple of days,” said Vivekanand Gupta, secretary of the Mumbai BJP.
