Anger brews in Palghar over Vadhavan deep-sea port
The stir will cast a shadow on the Lok Sabha elections. Fishermen rolling up their sleeves in the run up to the polls could be bad news for the ruling combine
Palghar: The BJP’s national narrative about the Ram temple, Article 370, common civil code and surgical strikes has barely created any ripples in Palghar. Instead, there is anger brewing in the constituency--reserved for Scheduled Tribes-- that goes to polls on May 20 along with Mumbai.
The anger pools around the upcoming Rs. 77,000 crore Vadhavan port touted as one of India’s prestigious deep-sea ports. It all began with Prakash Nikam, the Palghar district parishad chief and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) functionary, taking the anti-project activists to task on Thursday. This triggered fresh ire among local fishermen who fear rampant reclamation, relocation of villages and threat to the already fragile ecological balance because of the much-hyped project.
“The anti-Vadhavan stir will cast a long shadow on the Lok Sabha elections. Fishermen rolling up their sleeves in the run up to the polls could be bad news for the ruling Maha Yuti as the community constitutes a sizeable chunk—over 1.25 lakh—in the sprawling constituency,” said Palghar chronicler Nikhil Mestri. Palghar boasts a 112-kilometre-long coastline and it has a total of 21 lakh voters.
The ruling Maha Yuti has chosen orthopaedic Hemant Savra, a political novice, as its nominee. His father Vishnu Savra was a senior BJP functionary. Bharati Kamadi, the Sena (UBT) candidate who helmed the Palghar zilla parishad during Covid, on the other hand, is a popular figure in the Vikramgad, Jawhar and Wada pocket boroughs.
Rajesh Patil, the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) candidate, is the party’s legislator from Boisar. He has been heading the Thane central cooperative bank for over a decade. Vijaya Mhatre of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) too is in the poll fray.
If the Vadhavan stir catches momentum in the days to come, then it could make things difficult for BJP’s Savra and result in a straight fight between Shiv SEna (UBT)’s Kamdi and BVA’s Rajesh Patil, said observers.
Local BJP leaders are repenting of ceding Palghar to the undivided Sena during the Hindutva heydays. “We couldn’t strike roots in Palghar, in fact through the entire coastal belt in Konkan on account of that, and now it’s a challenge,” said a BJP functionary.
Meanwhile, the BVA, under the leadership of the crusty Hitendra Thakur, played its political cards well, retaining its local flavour. The party has retained three state assembly seats and its vote share was a robust 46% in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Having refrained from trampling on the BJP’s toes since 2022, the BVA has this time around also decided that should they win Palghar, they will support the BJP. This is especially crucial for them given the assembly polls slated for later this year, said Vishal Patil, a garage owner from Bordi.
The verdant constituency, nestled amidst paddy fields and chikoo orchards, comprises six assembly constituencies: Dahanu, Vikramgad, Palghar, Boisar, Nallasopara and Vasai. The last two have been ticked out of the ST reservation in the assembly as they fall in the urban bracket. Encircled by tree-canopied mountains on the one side and the Arabian Sea on the other, Palghar has been the laboratory for both, the CPM and the RSS, with the two ideological opponents clashing often.
Technically Palghar may be part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, but on-ground it lacks basic amenities that Mumbai takes for granted. “Schools are on paper. Those that have a building, don’t have teachers and those that function report a high drop-out rate,” says political analyst Suvidha Save. “One doesn’t know where the state funds disappear and how. Water, road connectivity, primary health centres are almost non-existent,” says, adding that while some good work is being done, it is not enough given the scale of Palghar’s problems.
For instance, the Rs. 1,900 crore Surya regional water supply scheme, reportedly okayed by the MMRDA way back in 2016 but inaugurated only this year, has hardly helped resolve the water crisis of Jawhar-Mokhada known for its rocky and arid terrain. “The Surya water is being transferred to urban regions, while Adivasi women still have to trek a couple of miles for a bucket of water,” said Nikhil Mestri.
Young boys migrate to the neighbouring Silvassa, Boisar and Umbergaon suburbs where countless engineering units have come up in recent years for jobs. Still others relocate to faraway cities such as Jalgaon, Dhule and Amravati. “As a result, local agriculture is getting impacted,” said Suvidha Save.
Lured by its greenery, prosperous Mumbaikars have begun buying huge plots in Palghar, Kelwa and Gholvad to build holiday homes, triggering hectic construction activity which elicits mixed reactions from the residents. But along with the striving, there is also sweeping ambition for a better life. Young Adivasi men are aware of their rights. “They know about Rohith Vemula, they know about what’s happening in Manipur, and they are politically astute,” said the garage owner from Bordi, Vishal Patil.
By any reckoning, BJP covets Palghar which, if won, will help the party project its pro-Adivasi image. However, much depends on whether the BJP can gear up its organisational machinery and win over ‘mukhiyas’, the community honchos, whose word is final for Adivasis in poll matters.
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