After South Mumbai, if there is any constituency which has aroused curiosity at the national level, it is Mumbai North Central. Two high-profile candidates — sitting Congress MP Priya Dutt and legal eagle and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee Mahesh Jethmalani — are locking horns for this seat.
However, like South Mumbai, there are spoilers like the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP’s) Haji Ibrahim Shaikh aka Bhaijan and the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena’s (MNS’s) Shilpa Sarpotdar, who will decide the fate of main contenders.
Post-delimitation, the constituency’s profile underwent a complete change. Earlier, it included central parts of the island city of Mumbai and some western suburbs. Now, the constituency has acquired a truly suburban nature.
Before the delimitation exercise, the North Central seat had anti-Congress character with fiery CPI(M) leader Ahilyabai Rangnekar and Janata Party candidate Pramilatai Dandvate getting elected. But post-delimitation, the constituency acquired a pro-Congress status with 73 per cent of over 1.6 million voters coming from the slums. Out of these voters, a little over 700,000 voters are Muslim and North Indian Hindu communities.
Interestingly, the present North Central seat that comprises the erstwhile Mumbai North West constituency, was once represented by Ram Jethmalani and Sunil Dutt, fathers of Mahesh Jethmalani and Priya Dutt, respectively. Maverick lawyer and former Union minister Ram Jethmalani represented the Mumbai North West in 1977 and 1980 before he was defeated by Sunil Dutt in 1984 and continued to represent the seat till his death in 2005, except for two occasion, when he not chose to contest the elections for personal reasons.
Priya speaks about various steps being taken by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for improving the overall status of minorities, including the appointment of Sacchar Commission, and how only the Congress can provide security to minorities.
Meanwhile, Mahesh Jethmalani is raising the issue of terrorism in his campaign and has mentioned that terror not only struck the city on November 26, 2008, but also during the July 11 train blasts a few years ago.
He also reminds how his father fought for the rights of slum-dwellers in the Supreme Court and got the landmark judgement which said slums, whether illegal or legalised, cannot be demolished during the monsoon season.
In the case of nearly 2,250,000 slum-dwellers who are going to be evicted for modernisation and expansion of the airport, he will do the same and fight their legal battle.
He accuses Priya Dutt of being indifferent towards the plight of slum-dwellers affected by the airport development project and doing nothing for cleaning up and development of Mithi river which runs through the constituency and played havoc in 2005 deluge.
Predictably, MNS candidate Sarpotdar who is wife of party’s general secretary Atul Sarpotdar and daughter-in-law of the senior Shiv Sena leader Madhukar Sarpotdar is harping upon MNS’s ‘sons of soil’ card, rehabilitation of PAPs and cleaning up of the Mithi river. She hopes party chief Raj Thackeray whose public rallies get good response will do trick for her and get Marathi votes.
Since none of the major political parties have fielded Marathi candidate in the constituency, Sarpotdar also hopes that none-traditional Shiv Sena votes will also come to her.
However, the BSP’s Bhaijan who owns a construction material supply business has made Dutt camp nervous as he has considerable following among minority community. It is because he played prominent role not only in opening few madarsas but also MBA and other professional courses college for minorities.
But Bhaijan, who till few days ago was head of Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) minority cell, refuses that he is wooing only Muslims and said, “this is the rumor which my opponents are trying to spread about me. The Congress party uses the votes of slum-dwellers during the elections but conveniently forget them afterwards”.
He further contends, “as I come from these slums I know the plight of people and I will change the picture.”
