Mumbai: Vilas Vithal Hiwale, 45, a daily-wage labourer, is all set to contest the Lok Sabha election from the North Mumbai constituency as a candidate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation. His agenda will be to tackle poverty and ensure basic amenities to the poor.
He will be taking on formidable challengers, being pitted against the Congress’s Urmila Matondkar and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s sitting Member of Parliament, Gopal Shetty. Hiwale, a resident of Char-kop village, is his family’s sole breadwinner and every morning, he waits at the naka for work. Since there is no guarantee of work, all he manages to earn is Rs 600-700 per day as a ‘kadiya’.
His family includes his wife and three children and they had opposed his decision to contest the election, as they do not have the funds. This is the first time that Hiwale is standing for an election. What prompted him to contest, The Free Press Journal asked Hiwale?Hiwale said he is from a poor family and there are 300 families like his in his locality, who are deprived of basic amenities like electricity, water and housing.
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“Before and during elections, politicians visit us, spend time with us and make big promises but once elect-ions are over and we go to their office to tell them about our problems, they just abuse and kick us out of their office. So our people have decided there should be at least one of us in power, so that they know about our problems and can work for us.” Further, he said, he wanted to put forth their problems before the people.
“My aim is not limited to winning or losing the election but to fight and let people know about our problems.” How did his family react to his decision? “My children are opposing it. They are saying, neither do we have a good financial background nor a political one. Why are you unnecessarily taking the risk of entering politics, they ask me. Even my mother who stays in Jalna is scared.
I had to go visit her to convince her. She is afraid that politics is a dirty business and it will only increase the number of enemies we have,” he said. Then, the vital question: How did he manage to pay the deposit (Rs 25,000) and arrange for other electoral expenses? “As I am from the Scheduled Castes (SC) I have to pay half the amount, Rs 12,500.
This amount and money for my expenses has been raised from the 300 families in my neighbourhood. People are willingly contributing towards my campaign expenses, as they are hopeful I will make a difference.” But as the day of election draws near, Hiwale said he has been unable to go to work.
