Mumbai North-Central: Dutt's Muslim support base could be dented by SP

It has already been pegged as the battle of the daughters, but the Mumbai North-Central Lok Sabha constituency, which had returned Priya Dutt of the Congress to the Lok Sabha by a margin of over 1.74 lakh votes in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, is perhaps interesting for several other reasons apart from DUtt and Poonam Mahajan, late Pramod Mahajan’s daughter.

The Samajwadi Party has fielded Farhan Azmi, Abu Asim Azmi’s son and a well-known restaurateur in the city,  from the constituency, possibly buoyed by the large percentage of Muslim voters in the Kurla, Kalina and Bandra (East) Assembly segments.

The possible dent in her Muslim voter base is matched by another serious election issue in the constituency. The large slum population in Mumbai North-Central has been another major support base for Dutt. This year, the rehabilitation of slum-dwellers surrounding the Mumbai airport, a long-delayed project that has run into a series of hurdles, is a sore point among people. That, and the negative publicity over her brother actor Sanjay Dutt’s repeated parole, could have an impact on voter behaviour in the region.

The constituency comprises Vile Parle, Chandivali, Kurla, Kalina and Bandra (East and West) areas in suburban Mumbai. In 2009, the constituency had witnessed a triangular fight between Dutt, the BJP candidate Mahesh Jethmalani and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidate Shilpa Sarpotdar. While the Shiv Sena votes got split in 2009 by the MNS, the total votes polled by Jethmalani and Sarpotdar were still 42,000 short of Dutt’s tally. While Dutt got 3,39,352 votes, Jethmalani and Sarpotdar got 1,44,797 and 1,32,546 votes respectively.  

Poonam Mahajan, the BJP candidate, seems to be confident of bagging the seat given the anti-incumbency factor and the perceived Modi wave, though the latter is hardly apparent in Mumbai North-Central except for perhaps Vile Parle, home to several Gujarati families.  “There is a big housing problem of slums surrounding the airport. The rehabilitation of slums in the area can happen but nobody has raised a voice on it in the past ten years. There is airport authority land which can be used for housing but nobody is raising the issue,” said Mahajan adding that all the six Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MPs of the city have failed as they did not raise the issues in Delhi.

She added that the slum rehabilitation issue will be on her agenda during election campaigning. “Mumbai, despite being the financial capital, has its own issues. There is no upgradation of infrastructure in the past ten years in the railways, the lifeline of the city. It has not been given any importance which is why we have accidents such as Monica More’s who lost both hands,” she added.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Phiroze Palkhivala, a lawyer by profession, is the nephew of eminent jurist late Nani Palkhivala. He believes that the people are fed up of conventional parties such as Congress and BJP. “During the 49 days of the AAP government in Delhi, corruption reduced drastically. It has emerged as an alternative to these conventional parties for clean and corruption-free politics,” he said adding that he, along with AAP activists, is preparing an issue-based agenda for the constituency.

He added that the people are also very upset in the constituency about Dutt’s brother actor Sanjay Dutt getting parole repeatedly. “I was told that people in the area believe that it is because of his sister that parole is repeatedly granted. The High Court has also rapped the authorities. The whole system is being distorted for one individual and is intolerable,” he said.

Residents in the constituency said Dutt did not raise the voice on various issues such as the street vendors’ bill and extending cut-off date for regularisation of slums. “During the passage of hawkers bill, Dutt did not raise her voice. The number of hawkers will go up now due to the union government allowing 2.5% hawkers of the total population of city. She should have suggested a city-centric implementation,” said Anil Joseph, president of Perry Road Residents Association in Bandra (West).

MLA Krishna Hegde, a close aide of MP Priya Dutt, said that the opposition’s allegations are grounded in ignorance. “The rehabilitation of slums surrounding the airport is being done in phases and creating one lakh houses is a huge task. At present, work is stuck as the matter is pending in court. Opposition candidates are makings baseless allegations due to ignorance,” said Hegde, adding that he is confident of Dutt winning the election with a majority.

He also dismissed opposition candidates’ views regarding Sanjay Dutt’s parole.  “Parole was granted due to the health issues of the actor’s wife. The actor has followed all the prescribed procedure to get the parole,” said Hegde adding that this will have no impact on elections.