Mumbai which goes to poll to next week, April 29, will have a key contest in the Mumbai North Central seat, where daughters of two late stalwart politicians are competing against each other.
In Mumbai North Central, the sitting BJP MP Poonam Mahajan is pitted against the Congress’ two-time former MP Priya Dutt. This is the only constituency in Mumbai where voters will choose between two strong women contenders. Poonam is the daughter of the late Union minister Pramod Mahajan and niece of the late Union minister Gopinath Munde. Priya is the daughter of the late Union minister Sunil Dutt and her mother, Nargis, who was a Rajya Sabha member. The family was very close to the Nehru-Gandhis.
This time, there is no wave and the constituency poses a significant challenge to both Mahajan and Dutt. “People need to vote for the Congress to save the Constitution. The last five years saw unfortunate incidents such as lynching which never happened before,” Priya Dutt told the Hindustan Times.
On the other hand, Poonam Mahajan is still banking on Narendra Modi and has said that only Modi can take India to newer heights. “This is not the election for Poonam Mahajan, but for the future of our children. In 2014, we were counted as a fragile economy, while today we are one of the fastest growing countries,” Mahajan told the Hindustan Times.
The constituency comprises six assembly segments, of which two are held by the BJP, three by ally Shiv Sena and one by the Congress, encircling the suburbs of Bandra-Kurla-Chandivali-Kalina-Santacruz-Vile Parle.
The voters in the constituency have complained about traffic, lack of rehabilitation in slum pockets, housing problems. “Our MPs have been unable to solve this issue for years, despite the fact that thousands of families are residing in more than 6,000 such buildings. Today our structures are dilapidated, but we cannot move out, as no builder is ready to take up revamp owing to stringent rules,” Suman Khandelwal told the Hindustan Times.
