Deora could face BJP's Lodha in Mumbai South LS constituency

The buzz about the Mumbai South Lok Sabha seat has been, until now, the fact that former banker Meera Sanyal is set to contest against sitting MP and Union Minister of state Milind Deora. There could, however, be a much more serious challenger for two-term MP Deora than Sanyal, who lost her deposit when she contested as an Independent in the 2009 elections.

While reports that Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Malabar Hill Mangal Prabhat Lodha would like to contest from the high profile Mumbai South constituency have been around for some months now, sources in the Shiv Sena said there is a likelihood of the Shiv Sena-BJP combine fielding one of Lodha’s sons who run the Lodha group.

Under the previous seat-sharing arrangement between the Sena and the BJP, the Mumbai South seat belongs to the Sena, which fielded Mohan Rawle, then sitting MP from a pre-delimitation constituency, in 2009.

Sources said Lodha or his son Abhinandan could contest from Mumbai South on the Shiv Sena symbol. The post-delimitation constituency includes parts of Mumbai’s former erstwhile textile mill areas of Sewri, Lalbaug, Mazgaon and Byculla, areas still dominated by Marathi-speaking voters.

“Whether it is Lodha senior or Abhinandan who contests, Deora faces a very tough election,” said a Congress leader in Mumbai.

Opinion remains divided on whether the traditional Shiv Sena voters will vote for a non-Maharashtrian candidate only because he’s contesting on the Sena symbol, but the Gujarati/ Marwari business community that aligned with Deora in the last election is almost certain to vote for Lodha, it is expected.

The dark horse in the race, needless to say, is the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s Bala Nandgaonkar who finished second (1,59,729 votes to Rawle’s 1,46,118 votes) in 2009 and was elected MLA from Mazgaon a few months later.