Posters bearing photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have been pasted in the intervening night of Friday and Saturday by the State’s Opposition parties at multiple under-construction infrastructure projects in the city, bearing the text: “This is my development”.
In Mumbai and adjoining areas, which go to polls in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 25, a key poll plank of the Mayahuti (a coalition of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party) has been the big ticket infrastructure projects inaugurated by the government in the last couple of years. Some of them include the Atal Setu —India’s longest sea link, the Mumbai Coastal Road project, and the laying of foundation stones at public transportation projects.
The ruling alliance has also sought votes in the name of development in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. .
In an effort to counter the Mahayuti’s narrative, Congress workers have put up posters at multiple ongoing infrastructure and transportation projects, including Gokhale Bridge in Mumbai’s western suburb of Andheri. The structure has been in the spotlight for being under construction for six years now, and has also made headlines recently for an engineering flaw of mismatched height between two bridges.
Other projects where posters were put up include sites of the Mumbai Metro rail, which has been in the works for the last few years.
Congress workers said that their poster campaign strives to “highlight the people’s pleas regarding the crumbling state” of Mumbai, and the painfully slow pace of construction which has led to the common man facing multiple “commuting woes”.
A report authored by a Dutch firm based in the technology sector had, a few months ago, stated that an average Mumbaikar takes over 20 minutes to cover a 10 km stretch. The report added that the traffic situation in multiple cities has deteriorated due to insufficient infrastructure and a slow-paced upgradation of the same.
