February 08, 2015
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Thane-Palghar: CPI(M) Surmounts Heavy Odds To Make Headway in ZP/PS Polls

Mariam Dhawale

JANUARY 30, 2015 – the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi –  was the day when the election results of the zilla parishads and tehsil panchayat samitis of the newly formed Palghar and Thane districts were declared. The polling took place two days earlier on January 28. The two new districts were belatedly formed on August 15, 2014, when the erstwhile Thane district was bifurcated. This necessitated fresh zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections.

This was the third major election in the last nine months that the CPI(M) in Thane-Palghar districts had to fight – first the Lok Sabha in April 2014 where it fought the Palghar (ST) seat, then the Vidhan Sabha in October 2014 where it contested 5 seats, and now the local bodies in January 2015 in which it contested nearly 75 seats in 7 tehsils. This exerted tremendous pressure on the Party’s meagre financial resources.

Facing stiff challenges and surmounting heavy odds, thousands of dedicated activists of the CPI(M) and of the mass fronts worked tirelessly for two months in December and January to keep the Red Flag flying high in this bitterly fought election.

The CPI(M) won 5 zilla parishad (ZP) seats and 11 panchayat samiti (PS) seats in four out of the eight tehsils of Palghar district and in one tehsil of Thane district. 9 of the 16 CPI(M) comrades elected are women. The tehsil-wise break-up of the seats won is as follows: Talasari – 2 ZP + 5 PS; Dahanu- 2 ZP + 2 PS; Jawhar – 1 ZP + 2 PS; Vikramgad – 1 PS; Murbad – 1 PS. The Party improved upon its performance in the 2012 local body polls, in which it had won 4 zilla parishad seats and 8 panchayat samiti seats in three tehsils.

When compared to the Vidhan Sabha polls three months ago, the CPI(M) in these elections substantially increased its votes in its main tribal bastion in the Talasari, Dahanu, Jawhar and Vikramgad tehsils. For instance, in the Talasari tehsil its votes increased from 15,130 to 18,334, and in the Dahanu tehsil its votes increased from 16,019 to 18,142.

The CPI(M) also retained the Talasari tehsil panchayat samiti, which it has been winning for the past 53 years since 1962 without a break, by wresting 5 out of the 10 seats there in a particularly difficult situation. The Party for the first time won a panchayat samiti seat in the Murbad tehsil of Thane district. This seat was won unopposed due to specific local factors.

Apart from the 16 seats that it won, in 3 more ZP seats and in 10 more PS seats, the Party stood second. Some of them were lost by wafer-thin margins. For instance, the Saravli PS seat in Dahanu was lost by just 8 votes; the Zai PS seat in Talasari by 84 votes; the Dehene PS seat in Dahanu by 209 votes; the Dehene ZP seat in Dahanu by 268 votes; the Jamshet PS seat in Dahanu by 315 votes; the Vehelpada PS seat in Vikramgad by 363 votes; and so on.

These elections were an uphill political task for the CPI(M). The BJP and Shiv Sena had swept the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha polls in Thane-Palghar districts, as in the rest of Maharashtra. Due to this, most of the opportunist leaders of the Congress and NCP in Palghar district deserted their sinking ships and joined the BJP or Shiv Sena before the ZP/PS elections. As a result, the Congress and NCP were nearly obliterated in Palghar district, increasing the strength of the BJP and SS, who fought these elections against each other.

The CPI(M) had to also counter the virulent anti-Party campaign by the expelled ex-MLA Rajaram Ozare, who had rebelled during the assembly elections in October 2014 and had filed his son’s nomination against the official Party candidate, whose name he himself had proposed in the district and state committee. This was the sole reason why the CPI(M) lost the Dahanu (ST) assembly seat, which it had won eight times without a break since 1978. The renegade Ozare had put up candidates, including his son, in all the 15 ZP/PS seats in Talasari. The BJP and the Ozare group used all kinds of inducements to lure the voters. Unimaginable quantities of money, mutton and liquor flowed in the adivasi hamlets.

Despite all this, the Ozare group was routed in this election and could win only one PS seat (which included his own village) and not a single ZP seat. But as in the Vidhan Sabha polls, these renegades partly succeeded in splitting the CPI(M) vote and thus helped the BJP to win 3 ZP seats and 4 PS seats in Talasari – something that had never happened before. In a well-deserved irony, Ozare’s son was himself defeated by the BJP. Had this unfortunate split not occurred, the CPI(M) would have swept 13 of the 15 ZP/PS seats in Talasari tehsil this time. That it succeeded in winning 7 ZP/PS seats even in such adverse conditions, is a feat in itself. It must be underlined that the Talasari tehsil directly borders BJP-dominated Gujarat. 

In this crucial election campaign, thousands of CPI(M) activists - men and women - moved from hamlet to hamlet from morning to night holding meetings, distributing leaflets, explaining the anti-people policies and steps of the BJP-led central and state governments and concentrating on burning local and developmental issues of the people. Two lakh leaflets were printed for this election campaign by the CPI(M) district committee.

Among the Party leaders who participated in this election campaign and addressed the pre-election meetings were state secretary and Central Committee member Dr Ashok Dhawale, state secretariat members J P Gavit MLA, Mahendra Singh, Dr Kishore Theckedath and Mariam Dhawale, state committee members Lahanu Kom ex-MP, L B Dhangar, Barkya Mangat, Edward Vartha, Ratan Budhar, Hemlata Kom and Kisan Gujar, all district committee members of the CPI(M), and district leaders of the CITU, AIKS, AIAWU, AIDWA, DYFI and SFI. The CPI(M) Mumbai and Nashik district committees also gave valuable financial assistance.

Before the election campaign began, over 125 branch and local conferences of the CPI(M) were successfully held in Thane-Palghar districts in the month of December 2014. Two district conventions of the AIDWA and DYFI were also held. Eight tehsil conferences of the Party will now be held from February 18 to 25. The CPI(M) Thane-Palghar district conference will be held on March 9-10 at Talasari and it will begin with a massive victory rally.