Mumbai Vidhan Sabha (Part 3)
Kandivali East
In this constituency the fight is between BJP’s MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar, Congress’s Kalu Budhelia and MNS’s Mahesh Farkase. But it is written all over that Atul Bhatkhalkar will win this with too much ease. The reason being, even Congress Karyakarta themselves don’t know their candidate too well in this area. Secondly of all constituencies I have covered on ground, and many prachar rallies and rath Yatra, I am telling you, the Rath Yatra of this man, Bhatkhalkar, was stopped at every 1 minute and there were people who climbed stairs to do the Aarti and put the flower Mala around Bhatkhalkar, such is his popularity. That day I was on Rani Sati Marg, Malad East a part of Bhatkhalkar’s constituency, I went to slum redevelopment areas of Vadarwada and around. Readers, please believe me when I say this, I haven’t seen such beautiful slums all my life. There were solar street lamps, there was cleanliness, there was discipline and the entire roads under an SRA scheme too were made of cement and concrete…What else people need here, and hence the RATH was stopped every minute in gratitude to the service of Bhatkhalkar. I have known Bhatkhalakar since I was a young kid and when he was an extremely close confidante of Late Pramod Mahajan. Only person in the opposition to be acknowledged by the tallest Speaker in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Dilip Walse Patil, to put forth his points and argument based on facts and getting his work done in the constituency. No challenge for him here. A list candidate in the probability to win this seat for the BJP.
Borivali.
Even if I stand from this seat, I will win with a huge margin here as this is a bastion of the BJP. Sanjay Upadhaya who has been often used by the party and asked to back off many times in the past, finally got the ticket from here and is winning. But at the same time, Upadhaya who is close to Shelar, has to thank ex MP Gopal Shetty a million times because he withdrew his candidature at the last minute, else it was again Goapl Shetty who would have won this even if he stood as an independent. It took Central Minister Piyush Goyal and Devendra Fadnavis a good 4 hours to convince Shetty to withdraw his nomination, in which they succeeded. But then it is BJP’s way of working, just like in Navi Mumbai (Belapur) too they did, no one should take BJP for granted or BJP is no one’s personal property. It has given you enough for years now it is time to pass the baton and let a youngster lead. But all is well now, and Sanjay Upadhaya will be a sure shot winner from the BJP here.
Dindoshi
Here the fight is directly between the two Shiv Sena’s. The candidate from UBT is Suneel Prabhu and from the Eknath Shinde camp is Sanjay Nirupam. I think Suneel Prabhu will win this seat comfortably.
Charkop
Yet again Yogesh Sagar from the BJP will be the winner.
Chandivali
Here the contest is tough between Mohd Arif Naseem Khan from Congress and his opponent who is from the Eknath Shinde camp representing Shiv Sena–Dilip Bhau Lande. Now, the issue here is that the majority of the population is North Indians and Muslims here. I was told Naseem Khan did try to convince the party high command to have a Sabha of Priyanka Vadra here, but somehow it is not happening I think. Now the problem is, there is a lot of in-fighting here amongst the Congress here. Many Cangressi’s here are in fact ready to help and also are helping Dilip Mama Lande. Since the East part of Suburban Mumbai is connected and treated as 1 for us suburban Mumbaikars, I have heard even the likes of Kripashankar Singh whose bastion is Kalina, is helping Dilip Mama Lande. Now it is a tough fight here but then people in Mumbai or Maharashtra don’t like candidates whose names are taken in the same breath as that of the underworld. I remember Devendra Fadnavis had demanded Naseem Khan to be expelled from the Congress for having close association with the D-Gang. People don’t forget this, even if they are Muslims who love our country, believe me. But as said, a tough fight here.
Vikrant Hemant Joshi.
