Mumbai: With Covid-19 expected to be a major issue even for the rest of 2021, the Shiv Sena has turned its entire attention to managing the disease in the city, considering the party rules the state as well as the Mumbai civic body. While the second wave seems to be waning, the Sena is now focusing on vaccination in Mumbai and preparing infrastructure for the projected third wave that could hit between July and September. Mumbai is important in Sena’s political plans. The party has been ruling the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which handles local governance in India’s financial capital, for almost three decades. The BMC has an annual budget of over ₹30,000 crore, which is more than a few small states in India, giving the Sena its strength and influence.

Consequently, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been making plans to wrest control of the civic body. In the 2017 civic polls, the BJP emerged as the second biggest party after the Sena, and the party’s leader in the state, DevendraFadnavis, is working on winning power in the BMC in the next civic polls scheduled to be held in February 2022. The Sena, meanwhile, is working on its counter-strategy. The party’s efforts in Mumbai are largely handled by the environment and tourism minister and Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray, insiders said. Thackeray, the guardian minister of Mumbai (suburban district), has been holding regular review meetings with top civic officials during the second wave.

The Sena cadre and YuvaSena (party’s youth wing headed by Aaditya Thackeray) functionaries have been on the ground since the pandemic hit in March 2020. During the second wave, they were helping people with admissions to hospitals, securing anti-viral injections Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, getting oxygen cylinders, etc. Now, the Sena-controlled BMC has decided to set up vaccination centers in each of the 227 wards across the city, asking corporators to take initiative and set up helpdesks to guide people.