Parties seem to be focusing on increasing their numbers, with prolonged political games breaking out over power and positions, instead of stable governance being provided to the masses
Civic bodies meant to be engines of local governance are now increasingly resembling arenas for political positioning. PIC/SAYYED SAMEER ABEDI
Politics today seems to follow a rule articulated by Devendra Fadnavis in 2019 when he argued that power is shaped less by political chemistry and more by hard arithmetic.
At the time, the remark sounded blunt and even cynical. But, today it reads less like a provocation and more like an accurate description of how politics functions and how alliances are formed, rearranged and justified once election results are declared.
This reality is playing out clearly across several civic bodies in Maharashtra. On paper, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena may not have contested every municipal corporation together but in many places, they did so as allies.
In several civic bodies, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC), their combined strength is more than sufficient to elect a mayor without difficulty.
The Opposition poses no serious numerical challenge, and voters have already delivered a clear and decisive mandate. Yet instead of translating this mandate into stable governance, what has followed is a quiet but intense power struggle within the alliance.
Both parties are now focused on increasing their individual numbers, not to defeat rivals but to outdo each other.
The contest is no longer about policy or civic priorities. It is about who gets the mayor’s chair? who controls key committees and who emerges as the dominant force within the municipal setup.
As these calculations continue everyday civic concerns remain unresolved. Issues that directly affect citizens are forced to wait while political negotiations dominate attention.
Civic bodies meant to be engines of local governance are now increasingly resembling arenas for political positioning.
This obsession with numbers, however, was not always pursued without restraint.
When Atal Bihari Vajpayee resigned as Prime Minister in the late 1990s, after just 13 days in office, he accepted the reality of numbers without compromising democratic ethics.
He did not attempt to split parties or engineer defections to cling to power. In doing so, he left behind a lasting reminder that while governments may come and go, the integrity of democracy must remain above the game of power.
The contrast with today’s political culture is hard to ignore. Political arithmetic now routinely comes with aggressive bargaining, quiet negotiations, and relentless efforts to outnumber not just rivals but even allies.
Post-poll manoeuvring has become the real election fought away from voters and decided purely on numbers.
What was once considered an exception has now become routine. Once votes are counted, the focus shifts swiftly from public accountability to backroom negotiations. Mandates delivered through the ballot often lose their meaning once results are declared, as power equations begin to change behind closed doors.
Civic bodies were meant to function differently from state and national politics. They were designed to focus on service delivery, roads, sanitation, water supply and local infrastructure.
Today, however, municipal corporations are increasingly treated as extensions of larger power struggles in Mantralaya and Delhi, where local governance becomes secondary to broader political ambitions.
The responsibility for this erosion does not lie with the ruling alliance alone. Opposition parties, too, have frequently abandoned their stated commitments and ideological positions when it suits their political interests. Parties that campaign fiercely against each other and promise alternative models of governance often join hands with ideologically opposite forces, less to serve voters and more to keep rivals at bay or secure power. In the process, long-term goals are sacrificed for short-term political convenience.
Coalitions by themselves are not the problem. In a diverse democracy, alliances are natural and often necessary. The real concern is the absence of honesty. Sudden political shifts are rarely explained to voters. There is little acknowledgement of contradiction and no expression of regret over broken promises. Numbers matter; principles quietly fade into the background.
This environment has also allowed smaller parties, even those clearly rejected by voters, to emerge as kingmakers. Their influence stems not from public support but from strategic positioning.
With just a handful of seats, parties with lesser numbers demand key posts, dictate terms, and punch far above their electoral weight. Democracy begins to resemble a mathematical exercise rather than a reflection of popular choice.
For the common citizen, this is deeply frustrating. People voted expecting stability and effective governance. Instead, they are forced to watch prolonged political games over power and positions, with little clarity on when the administration will actually begin.
It is no surprise, then, that NOTA (None of the Above) is receiving increasing support. In recent civic elections, both Mumbai and Pune recorded a noticeable rise in voters choosing to reject all political parties. In Mumbai alone, over one lakh voters opted for NOTA, with turnout hovering around 53 per cent.
If alliances are formed only to win elections and not to govern together, the voters’ mandate inevitably loses its meaning. Civic bodies are the closest form of government to the people. When they are turned into battlegrounds for political one-upmanship, public trust erodes slowly but steadily.
In the end, numbers may decide who rules. But citizens will remember something else: whether those in power chose cooperation over competition, and governance over gamesmanship. That ultimately is the real crisis in today’s politics, not the lack of numbers, but the loss of meaning behind them.
Sanjeev Shivadekar is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @SanjeevShivadek
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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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