BJP invokes fear of ‘Mamdanisation’ of Mumbai in BMC poll

Kunal Purohit, independent journalist and author of H-Pop-The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars, posted this on X on on Wednesday, 14 January, the day before the BMC poll: “I’ve been tracking polls in Mumbai since 2009, and this is the most communally charged, hateful election I have seen. There is a full-blown campaign underway to stoke hate, anger and convince Mumbaikars that an Islamic takeover of Mumbai is inevitable if the BJP doesn’t win…

"Hindutva influencers in offline and online worlds are constantly peddling conspiracy theories. They are desperately trying to make Mumbaikars forget their problems and invent new ones: Land Jihad-Hawker Jihad-Coastal Jihad-Vote Jihad…”

The bogey of an Islamic takeover of the financial capital of India is being raised ironically by a party which has held power in the state for 10 of the last 12-and-a-half years; and which has controlled the BMC for almost the past 30 years, with the Shiv Sena.

The Shiv Sena was split in 2022 and the runaway faction of SS (Shinde) is in alliance with the BJP while SS (UBT) is fighting to regain control of BMC, the cash cow with an annual budget of Rs 75,000 crore. To put the figure in perspective, the annual budgets of New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata range between 12 and 25 per cent of the BMC budget.

Muslims are estimated to make up 18 to 21 per cent of Mumbai’s projected population of 22 million (urban agglomeration) and 27 million (Greater Mumbai). On 15 January, however, 1.04 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes.

Significantly, the number of Muslim corporators has never exceeded 32 out of the 227 BMC corporators elected. In the last election there were 31 Muslim corporators and BJP, as is usually the case, has not cared to field any Muslim candidate in the city despite Mumbai's thousands of accomplished Muslims.

However, in this election, the BJP has pulled out all the stops. Propaganda — fuelled by dubious studies by even the likes of TISS — project that Muslim population in the city will soon overtake that of Hindus. Such propaganda has been amplified by the BJP’s official handle, which released a video marking areas in the city with a high concentration of Muslims in green, hinting that the entire city would soon turn ‘green’.

Mumbai BJP president and MLA Amit Satam was quoted variously as exhorting voters to not “let a Khan become mayor”/ no Khan will be allowed to become Mumbai mayor”.

Addressing a meeting, Maharashtra cabinet minister Nitesh Rane declared that voting for the Shiv Sena (UBT) would be akin to voting for “Pakistan ke abba (Pakistan's daddy)” and called upon people to resist the alleged “vote jihad”. Meanwhile, Hindu influencers have amplified so-called threats to the city from ‘footpath jihad'.

Even more extraordinary has been chief minister Devendra Fadnavis promising to get rid of Bangladeshis from Mumbai and Maharashtra. His promise that by June 2026, the state government would put a staggering 10,000 buses on the road to transport illegal Bangladeshis to the international border triggered a meme fest, with people pointing out how the number of BEST buses has steadily declined. Fadnavis, however, was unfazed and claimed that an AI-based app was being developed by IIT-Mumbai, which would help detect Bangladeshis living in the city illegally.

Civic issues have taken a backseat. Corruption in the BMC is rarely being talked about. Middle-class concerns about air quality, potholes, crumbling infrastructure diminishing open spaces, and increasing encroachment on footpaths have been drowned by identity politics. Concerns of slum dwellers living in dread of dislocation and inadequate compensation are rarely issues in the election.

The question is, whether the BJP has lost confidence in its organisational strength, its money power and support of the Marathi manoos in the city. What else explains the spectre of communal campaigns influencing BMC voters?