Mumbai Democracy is an expensive business and in India, with its perennial elections and thin party affiliations, it’s even more so. In the last few years, the spectacle of political parties putting their MPs and MLAs in lavish five-star stays has become a norm.
Similarly, when an election as important as the legislative council poll is slated for June 20, the four major political parties-Shiv Sena, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- have booked 220 rooms across four five-star hotels in the city for their MLAs.
Although the cost of the rooms are borne by the parties from their own kitty, the collective bill may run up to ₹45 lakh. With food, transportation and other expenses, the cost of the democracy could be in crores.
While BJP has huddled its MLAs at Taj Vivanta (erstwhile President), NCP has chosen Trident at Nariman Point as their hideout. Sena has hired rooms at WestIn located near Powai lake and Congress is keeping its flock at Four Seasons, Worli.
Barring their ministers, who are staying in their official accommodations, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents have collectively booked about 120 rooms (Congress-35, Sena-50 and NCP- 40). Similarly, BJP has booked about 100 rooms in the Cuffe Parade hotel. More rooms would be added to accommodate central observers of national parties such as Congress and BJP, said party functionaries.
These hotel stays have also become sort of a team-building exercise for the party functionaries. It has become centres of activities for the respective parties. Top leaders of the parties hold meetings with senior leaders or MLAs at the same place instead of ferrying them to party offices.
Senior Sena leaders Aaditya Thackeray, Anil Parab and Anil Desai were interacting with groups of legislators at the Powai hotel. Meanwhile, leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis too held parleys with party MLAs at the Cuffe Parade hotel.
In addition, just like teachers keeping a keen eye on school students during excursions, each camp has deputed senior leaders to keep a close eye on MLAs.
Meanwhile, as a strategy, the parties are also not informing the MLAs whom they have to vote for on Monday. “It would be revealed to the MLAs individually on the day of voting. We have appointed senior leaders in charge of a group of MLAs. The leader will let the MLAs know who to vote for,” said a senior NCP leader.
MLAs will be electing 10 members to the upper house of state legislature on June 20. For the 10 seats, the contest is between the ruling MVA and opposition BJP. On the basis of their strength in the assembly, the BJP can elect four members, while Shiv Sena and NCP can elect two each. Congress can get one.
The 10th seat is up for grabs, for which the contest is between BJP which has fielded five candidates and Congress, which has fielded two. The fate of the 10th seat is expected to be in the hands of 29 Independent and small party MLAs.
Meanwhile, the cost of this exercise is expected to run up in crores. The minimum room tariff at these hotels are about ₹8,000 to ₹11,000 per day. According to their website, Taj President’s minimum tariff was ₹9440 a day, Trident ₹11,417, Westin ₹11,632 and Four Seasons ₹8364 without taxes.
When HT tried to get in touch with executives of two of the hotels, they declined to comment. “We do not share the information about our guest,” the executive dealing with public relations said.
However, leaders from the parties have said that the rooms have cost them something between ₹5,000 and ₹8,000 because of bulk booking. “Each of the rooms cost between ₹5,000 and ₹8,000, much less than their regular tariff because of bulk booking. Sometimes, the hotel bills are borne by a key party leader, but nowadays, parties officially foot the bills from its kitty. The hotel bills were paid by the parties officially during the stay for the RS polls last week,” said a leader from Shiv Sena requesting anonymity.
