Parties court voters over extended weekend

Mumbai: The Republic day holiday on Friday followed by a fourth Saturday with a sweet Sunday providing the icing on the cake. Who made the most of this long weekend other than the break-starved Mumbaikars? The vote seekers, of course.

With less than a week to go before Mumbai casts its vote, aspiring councillors did lot of door-to-door canvassing. As Mumbai���s political marathon entered the last leg, more than 2,000 contestants batted their heart out in the slog overs. Lots of rallies, public meetings, padyatras, and personal pleas for votes kept Mumbai engaged to the ongoing political process over the extended weekend.

A grand finale to this hullabaloo came in the form of a high-decibel event ��� a joint public meeting featuring two of the biggest Hindutva mascots, Shiv Sena patriarch Balasaheb Thackeray and Gujarat CM Narendra Modi at Shivaji Park on Sunday. It was a first for the saffron siblings and their respective chief spokespersons sharing the same space apparently to save the day for their besieged banners.

Mumbai���s political aspirants had a captive audience. So, it was the right time to talk civic issues, list out problems, and finally, make grand promises to solve them with a big rider ��� if only your precious vote takes me to the BMC. The experience for Mumbai���s voters ranged from mundane to multi-coloured. Mundane for those who got the same old promises from the same old faces ��� the sitting corporators who said they would do better if elected again. Multi-coloured for those who had a new political outfit knocking at their doors ��� the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Flags jostled for space, busy-looking vehicles with banners and cut-outs criss-crossed wards, even small Republic Day celebrations on housing societies��� premises were exploited for political purposes. Households were bombarded with pamphlets, even pictures that had dubious-looking men and women masquerading as serious democratic contestants.

There was a lot of buzz in the city���s politically aware reserves ��� Dadar, Parel, Lalbaug, Kurla, Dharavi, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Borivli, and Andheri. Locality kids were persuaded to take part in rallies and they happily joined in. The main players ��� Shiv Sena, BJP, Congress, and NCP ��� roped in their star campaigners for the big talk.

Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray addressed a couple of public meetings and so did MNS president Raj Thackeray, CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, and NCP duo Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel.