With Maharashtra heading to the Meeting elections within the coming days, the Mahayuti authorities’s choice to waive off toll tax of sunshine automobiles at Mumbai’s all 5 entry factors appears to be geared toward reaching out to middle-class voters from the capital metropolis in addition to the Mumbai Metropolitan Area (MMR).
These toll cubicles at Mumbai’s entrance are seen to have change into areas for perennial visitors jams involving enormous waste of gas and time.
Following his Cupboard assembly that took this choice Monday, Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Eknath Shinde stated: “As an MLA, I at all times demanded that the tolls be waived. I had even gone to the court docket towards these tolls. Similar to CM Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme, that is CM Ladka Pravasi Yojana (CM pricey traveller scheme). This choice will ease visitors, save gas, save time and assist the atmosphere.”
Shinde additionally stated the choice taken forward of the elections can be a “everlasting” one.
Other than saving gas and time of lakhs of commuters day by day, the transfer by the Mahayuti authorities, which additionally includes the BJP and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, is a bid to woo the folks from 36 Meeting seats in Mumbai, 17 in Thane district and seven in Raigad district, which largely represent the MMR from the place commuters journey to Mumbai repeatedly by vehicles.
In most of those constituencies within the MMR, the Shinde Sena and the BJP can be locked in contests towards the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) within the upcoming polls. Regardless of the cut up within the unique Sena, the Thackeray faction has managed to carry its floor within the area, which was mirrored through the Lok Sabha polls, when the get together together with its Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP) gained 5 of 10 parliamentary seats in Mumbai, Thane and Raigad.
The Raj Thackeray-headed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had been on the forefront of protests towards the toll cubicles throughout Maharashtra. In February 2014, the then CM from the Congress, Prithviraj Chavan, had agreed to scrap over 40 toll cubicles within the state following an agitation led by the MNS. Since then, the MNS has at all times held a stir towards the tolls to hunt “reduction for commuters”.
The Mahayuti authorities’s choice got here a day after Raj Thackeray introduced to go solo within the elections, giving a lift to the MNS’ ballot marketing campaign which, the ruling camp believes, might trigger a division within the Uddhav Sena’s votes in plenty of constituencies within the Mumbai area, thereby giving a bonus to the incumbent coalition.
On his half additionally, Raj was fast to congratulate the Shinde authorities over the choice, asking his employees to “remind” those that the MNS has now accomplished a “efficiently agitation” towards the toll plazas.
The Mahayuti has additionally been battling a “unfavourable publicity” among the many center class, particularly following the implementation of the CM Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme, with the federal government now depositing Rs 1,500 per thirty days within the accounts of ladies beneath poverty line throughout the state.
A raft of welfare schemes rolled out by the Mahayuti authorities in current months have been geared toward numerous communities or the underprivileged sections. To offset its perceived “freebie politics for poor”, the federal government was in search of an efficient option to win over the center class. The choice to offer toll exemption at Mumbai entry factors is being seen as a key measure on this regard on the eve of elections.
Through the tenure of the primary Sena-BJP authorities from 1995 to 1999, senior BJP chief Nitin Gadkari because the then minister of the Maharashtra State Highway Improvement Company (MSRDC) had constructed over 55 flyovers in Mumbai. The tolls had been set as much as get better the price of these flyovers. All 5 toll cubicles on the borders of Mumbai turned totally operational in 2002.
For over a decade now, a number of activists have been claiming that the price of these flyovers has been recovered. Final October, the federal government nonetheless raised the toll charges on mild automobiles at Mumbai’s entry factors to Rs 45 from Rs 40 till 2026.
