A New Era!
Although we saw some change in the verdict at centre, Thane has again remained unchanged. Thanekars have yet again shown strong support to saffron parties. Candidate Naresh Mhaske, the newly elected MP won with a margin of over 2 lakhs going past the incumbent and two term MP Rajan Vichare.
Naresh Mhaske has to his credit tremendous work at the grass root level and has served multiple posts in Thane starting from president of student wing of Shiv Sena, corporator for more than 15 years, mayor of Thane and recently spokesperson of Shinde faction Shiv Sena which helped him work on a bigger canvas.
His leadership skills, knowledge of current issues and oratory prowess tempted him to contest Member of Legislative Assembly elections in 2014 but didn’t get the right opportunity then. His patience and loyalty finally yielded rich dividends. Mhaske’s candidature was announced pretty late as Shinde’s Shiv Sena and BJP couldn’t come to a consensus because of strong political arithmetic favouring BJP. Due to this, Mhaske got only 15 days to reach 20 lakh odd voters. It was a Herculean task but his personal goodwill, chief minister’s personal attention and PM Modi’s rally in the vicinity of Thane helped him compensate for the delay of his campaign.
In parliamentary elections, it is always the party which is seen first then the candidate. But this year considering the overall results of our country we can definitely see a transition. Though the voting percentage has not increased significantly, the thinking has changed drastically, thanks to the plethora of media exposure available around us. People have become more learned, vigil and aware of the whereabouts of their representative.
Representative’s personal rapport with voters, selection of issues and character plays a major role in his success. Mind you even if we take a franchise of a reputed brand (political party) but if our service (work of local MP) is poor then still we may lose business (electorate here). Democracy is the only festival which is expected to celebrate daily where our voters are God. If they are not worshipped well with prayers of development and harmony then we may lose on their blessings (verdict).
Mhaske now represents a constituency where highest migration is taking place and aspirations of people have skyrocketed as it produced its first chief minister two years back. It is going to be a challenging job for Mhaske and he can’t afford to have a single unproductive day. It is good to see that he has immediately gone in MP mode and visited the railway station the very next day of his appointment to address the grievances of his railway passengers.
Thane Lok Sabha has approximately 23 lakhs voters and with 1800 days in hand he needs to create an impact on at least 1200 voters per day. Thanekars are still struggling with issues of infrastructure, development, cleanliness, road traffic congestion, parking woes, water scarcity, local employment etc. The newly elected MP can create a blueprint of Thane and appoint his own set of personnel from within or outside the party and audit their progress on yearly basis and constantly take feedback from the voters to improvise the product – Thane.
Naresh Mhaske (NM), who shares the initials with the supermost MP Candidate Narendra Modi (NM) is expected to give a ‘guarantee’ of progress in Thane making Thane’s growth 400 paar!’
-Nikhil Ballal, Managing Editor