When bypoll steals limelight

Shiv Kumar

With less than a year to go before the next Lok Sabha elections, the bypoll to a couple of parliamentary seats should not be more than a formality. Usually a handful of party leaders go through the motions of campaigning while their minions ensure that their core supporters turn up to vote on polling day.

Not this time, though. The byelection to the Palghar Lok Sabha seat, on the outskirts of Mumbai, has turned into a prestige fight between the warring allies BJP and the Shiv Sena. The latter fired the first salvo by roping in the family of deceased MP Chintaman Wanga, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014 on a BJP ticket.

The late Wanga’s son Shrinivas, who is contesting as the Shiv Sena candidate, has party chief Uddhav and his son Aditya Thackeray burning the rubber for him in the sprawling constituency.

After losing its candidate to its frenemy, the BJP wooed Congress leader Rajendra Gavit into its fold and fielded him against the younger Wanga. While Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is doing his bit, the BJP decided that Gavit could do with some additional heft and roped in Yogi Adityanath to do some pitching.

The Palghar poll on Monday continues to be in the news thanks to the high-voltage fireworks from leaders of both outfits.

Meanwhile, reports from the ground indicate that the Congress party and the local Bahujan Vikas Aghadi too are putting up a tough fight.

Panhandling in US

It’s no secret that the four-year old NDA government in Maharashtra has run the state’s economy to the ground. The Rs 30,000-crore farm loan waiver announced by Chief Minister Fadnavis more than a year ago strained the treasury but implementing the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for government employees in the coming months could prove to be the last straw.

Nips and tucks on the budgetary front are unlikely to yield the requisite cash and after some futile adjustments, Fadnavis has chosen the obvious —panhandle. The CM heads for Washington in June to try and obtain World Bank funds.

The proposal under preparation by the state government seeks to obtain World Bank funding under the heads of climate resilient agriculture and programmes to reduce crop loss, apart from harnessing solar energy for farmers.

The proposed projects are expected to cost at least Rs 6,000 crore and the state government plans to pitch for part funding from the international lending body.

Banking on Piyush

Piyush Goyal taking charge of the finance ministry, if only for a short while, in addition to the railways has made a section of Mumbai’s builders very happy. The buzz in the trade is that nearly 250 acres of land allotted to housing railway employees in Mumbai would be commercially developed. It helps that Goyal is a Gujarati from Mumbai who controls both the finance and railway ministries.