The Maha Vikas Aghadi has fielded the sitting MP and Shiv Sena UBT leader Arvind Sawant from the Mumbai South seat. Sawant, considered to be the strongman of his party, has successfully won the crucial seat in the past two elections and has also served as a Cabinet Minister in the past. The Mahayuti alliance has fielded Yamini Jadhav, Shinde-led Shiv Sena against Sawant.
Sawant started off with attacks against the Election Commission citing the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections which have not been conducted for the last two years. He alleged that since people’s day-to-day affairs are directly related to the municipal corporation, BMC functioning without elected representatives proves that the democracy and the constitution of India are at stake.
He appreciated Shiv Sena party chief Uddhav Thackeray for his works and also stated that the Coastal Road is a gift to Mumbaikars from Shiv Sena since the project was funded by the BMC, ruled by Sena. He also mentioned the three projects that Thackeray had presented to the city during his tenure as the chief minister. He said that projects like coastal road, Mahalaxmi race course and Mumbai’s east coast development would have transformed the city.
As Shiv Sena will be contesting the election with a pre-poll alliance with the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) for the first time, Sawant said that this time the election is not about Mumbai but to bring a change at the centre. He alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party of killing democracy and working as a dictatorship.
“This time the BJP’s election campaign is all about the prime minister. He also boasts about his guarantees but the term my guarantee is about ego. There is a difference between ‘I’ and ‘we’. It should be the government’s guarantee and not any single person’s,” Sawant said.
Introducing himself as the voice of Mumbai in the parliament, Sawant alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party is shifting all the important projects from Mumbai to other states, especially Gujarat. He also expressed his discontentment about shifting the International Financial Services Centre to Gujarat, from the financial capital of the country. “Vedanta Foxconn, Tata Airbus, Medical devices park and many more have been shifted to their states. After all these sectors, they have also shifted the cricket world cup from Mumbai to Ahmedabad,” he said.
The two-term MP mentioned the violence in Manipur and attacked the prime minister for not speaking up about the issue. He claimed that the PM only spoke after the opposition brought a no confidence motion against the government and instead the BJP brought a draconian amendment to the law appointing the election commissioner. He alleged that now the election commissioner is a slave of the BJP and election schedules are made to facilitate campaigning of a particular party.
He also alleged that there is an atmosphere of dictatorship as the BJP is misusing the central agencies for political gains which is proving to be dangerous for democracy. “We had never earlier heard the name of Enforcement Directorate but since the BJP has come in power, ED is being constantly used to target its opponents,” he added.
Talking about the Mahalaxmi racecourse, Sawant said that Shiv Sena wants development of Mumbai but not at the cost of environment and people’s rights. He said that Shiv Sena’s theme park project for Mahalaxmi racecourse was about bringing out the best of the place whereas the BJP’s project will benefit the builders more than the people.
He said that the party had earlier rejected huge projects only because the local people were not convinced about the development that the project would have brought in their lives. He alleged that the current state government is bringing such projects to Mumbai that cause pollution and good projects to the BJP-ruled states.
The incumbent MP also mentioned about the issue he had raised in the parliament for granting and conferring the status of classical language to Marathi. He expressed grief for the demand not being met even after ten years. “We have been working for Marathi Asmita and everyone who has fought for Maharashtra, we look up to them as the sons of soil. They should be given the first preference and priority when it comes to benefits from the government,” he said.
