In his final poll rally, CM Fadnavis promises bigger SRA homes

Mumbai: In an announcement that could prove a game changer in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Council (BMC) polls, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday announced an increase in the size of Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) project homes from 269 square feet to 305 square feet.

Considering that a large number of votes from all communities comes from slum areas, Mr Fadnavis’ announcement could tilt the scales in favour of BJP in a city where it is trying everything under the sun to win handsomely.

Addressing BJP’s ‘Parivartan Rally’, Mr Fadnavis saved his biggest promise for his last rally ahead of the elections. In a city where lakhs of people live in slums, such a big increase in SRA homes was in a way a surprise to many.

He said, “We are ready to give more FSI (Floor Space Index) to the builder only if he would give a bigger home to the common man.” Mr Fadnavis also repeated his promise of 15,000 homes to slum dwellers who reside near Mumbai airport area.

The CM was aggressive in challenging Shiv Sena over various administrative and alleged corruption issues in BMC. He highlighted corruption allegations in issues such as garbage, roads and the tanker mafia.

Mr Fadnavis also referred to the surgical strike carried out by the defence forces in October 2016 to rebut Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s consistent criticism about turbulent borders.

Slamming Mr Thackeray over the latter’s mention of “being a tiger” (courageous) in Mumbai, Mr Fadnavis said, “I don’t call myself tiger but when you have the support of people, you get the power of 100 lions. Uddhavji, people are now with me”.

Trying to woo North Indian and Gujarati voters in the city, Mr Fadnavis tried to hark back to Sena’s stands on both communities in past.

“Now nobody extorts taximen in the city because we provide them security,” he said, taking a dig at Sena.