Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is paying special attention on the Thane district ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls as the government has initiated projects worth Rs 50,000 crore in the district. There are three Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly constituencies in the highly urbanised district, which comprises six municipalities. For better electoral results here, the BJP government has undertaken large-scale developmental works here pertaining to roads, water, the metro and air transport as well as other infrastructure projects.
While inaugurating some of the projects in Thane on Monday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Institutions like the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) are not made for earning much interest on their fix deposits. They should initiate infrastructure works to make people’s lives better. Our government has kept a target of completing '1.50 lakh crore projects in Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority area. Out of that, almost '50,000 crore is being spent on Thane district alone.”
Behind this strong push for development, there are political reasons. Thane is a politically sensitive district, as it is has a large number of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats. Out of the six municipalities, the BJP is in power in two on its own and one in alliance with the Sena. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress are in power in one municipality each while the Sena is in power in one.
“We are doing development politics. The region had major infrastructure backlog in the last fifteen years. But under the leadership of Modiji and Fadnavisji, an overhaul is going on. By 2020, this area will compete with the highly developed one,” said Ravindra Chavan, the BJP’s sole minister from district.
