Mumbai Vidhan Sabha (Part 2)
Andheri West constituency
Here the fight is between BJP MLA Ameet Satam and Congress’s Ashok Bhau Jadhav. I feel those candidates whose work and performance can be seen in slum areas, that MLA is a sure shot winner. If the slums are fine, then the urban areas are well taken care of. I personally had this experience of being with Ameet Satam at one of his rallies at the famous Gilbert Hill (a slum area), Andheri. This slum is residence to maximum Muslims, South Indians and then the rest of communities follow. But in this area, a Muslim dominated one, Satam has constructed around 11 mandir’s which were not opposed even by a single Muslim. You can see the beautiful balance Ameet Satam has made here. Also it is only due to this efforts, this constituency sees 58 new gardens, he has laid a network of 400 CCTV’s, 100 new roads have been made, 25 community centers have been erected, maintenance of Juhu beach is spectacular every day and also he promised one day slums of Indira Nagar, Nehru Nagar and Juhu Galli will be rehabilitated and buildings will be made there; for this already biometric survey of the place is done. Ashok Bhau Jadhav, the opposition, has in fact stayed away from active politics since the last 10 years, as he was not in power. So Andheri, vote wisely for a candidate who is already connected with the system and administration.
Vile Parle
I don’t see any opposition to BJP’s candidate Parag Alawani. But there is one Sandeep Raju Naik from the Shiv Sena (Udhdav Balasaheb Thackeray) camp, who was fighting in Andheri East till 2019 and the second opponent to Parag Alawani is from the MNS party, Juilee Shende. Now what has been told to me is that for this seat from Shiv Sena (UBT) against Parag Alavani, Juilee was very much interested in contesting as she was in UBT till about a month ago. But then Sandeep Raju naik came and got the ticket. Then what Juilee does is that she goes to MNS just 2 or 3 days before nomination papers to be filled and gets a ticket from the MNS. Now Juilee was a MNS party worker since the start of her political career, she had inf act gathered good amount of support to, but then in between she joined UBT Sena and now when she realized the mistake she went back to the MNS…I don’t see any competition to Parag Alawani as both the opponents are practically new to the constituency. An easy seat for the BJP; plus let’s not forget Alavani’s contribution to Vile Parle. If husband Parag has served as an MLA here since 2014, wife Jyot,i too has been a corporator for years now. Both husband and wife have worked for the BJP and kept their constituency clean, neat, and an A list winning preposition for the BJP since years.
Bandra.
Another A list winning preposition seat for the BJP is that of, Bandra West wherein MUmbai BJP chief Advocate Ashish Shelar from the BJP has to compete against Asif Zakaria of Congress and some 6 other Muslim candidates who are either contesting from other parties or standing as independent. Yesterday by chance I was passing by the Bandra masjid around 4: 30-5pm and I saw Priya Dutt in the crowd. She was campaigning for Asif Zakaria near that Bandra masjid, and can you believe this? Remove the CCTV footage of that area as to confirm what I am saying, there were only 10 to 15 people with them. I don’t feel bad for Asif, but I felt really bad for ex MP Priya Dutt. And to top that, I have covered the morning Rath Yatra of Ashish Shelar, wherein on a normal day at least 200 to 300 people were walking in front of us..The result is clear. But Shelar needs to do a lot of work in terms of vote management especially in the areas of Pali Hill, Carter road and the whole adjoining Muslim areas of Bandra. His leads in the past have gone down here. What is the use of Muslims leaders of the BJP in the area, tell me? People like Asif Bhamla should help Shelar to get vote conversions. But having said that, the clear winner for me is Ashish Shelar.
Dahisar
The main fight here is between BJP’s Manisha Choudhary and Shiv Sena UBT’s Vinod Ghosalkar. In fact when Ghosalkars went to Uddhav Thackeray to get the AB form, Uddhav Thackeray just wrote Ghosalkar and asked the family to decide amongst themselves as to who will contest against Manisha Choudhary. But as learnt, in the car itself, Vinod Ghosalkar took the form and filled in his own name in the car as they left Matoshri. Technically had the daughter-in-law Tejaswee Ghoslakar fought (wife of Vinod’s son Abhishek Ghosalkar who was killed on Facebook live) there would have been a fight. But now since Vinod Ghosalkar is fighting and he has entered the election fray with a lot of “moolah”, yet I am claiming that Manisha Choudhary will be the winner. What work has she done there, well there is an entire booklet which is printed and handed over to the voters. If you feel that from Bandra to Andheri is plush, just go and check the roads and infrastructure at Dahisar. Secondly, it was Manisha CHoudhary the only FEMALE MLA who was harassed by ex CM Uddhav Thackeray the most I am told, during Covid just because she was in the opposition party. False cases were registered against her just because she fed 5000 khichadi to the poor during Covid. But that did not deter Manisha Choudhary and I am sure she will be the MLA from Dahisar for the record 3rd time.
Vikrant Hemant Joshi.
