Mumbai: To fight the battle for Mumbai North-East constituency, the Mahayuti alliance has nominated Mihir Kotecha as their candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Kotecha, who is serving as a Member of Legislative Assembly from Mulund, has also served as the vice president of Bharatiya Janata Party Mumbai city and president of the party’s youth wing in the past. Kotecha, who has a stronghold over Mulund, where he was born and brought-up, will contest against Maha Vikas Aghadi’s Sanjay Dina Patil from the Shiv Sena (UBT).
Speaking at ‘The Mumbai Debate- Election 2024’, Kotecha spoke on the success graph of Modi government in the last ten years and also shared his aims as an MP for his constituency, which included railway, tourism, drugs-free Mankhurd and slum-free Mumbai. He appreciated the union government’s work for launching over 100 Vande Bharat trains, 75 new operational airports, PM Jan Arogya Yojana and supplying electricity to more than 18,500 villages for the first time.
Kotecha shared his vision of setting his constituency free of the two dumping grounds located in Vikhroli and Mankhurd. Taking a toll against Shiv Sena, he alleged the Sena for sanctioning the dumping ground in Vikhroli. The candidate assured Mumbaikars of shutting down these dumping grounds by the end of 2025.
Sharing his plans about providing a new railway terminal to the city, Kotecha said that he plans to get a railway terminus constructed on a railway land near Mulund station in order to cater the increasing passenger load. Along with a new terminus, he also shared his wish to start a Konkan Express train to provide transport facility to the Konkan population in the region.
The sitting MLA from Mulund also shared about his plans to boost local tourism in the city by constructing a cable-car facility to reach atop the hills of Mulund, where people can enjoy the view of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park as well as Tulsi lake. He also informed the audience about a bird park being set up in Mulund, for which the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has appointed a consultant and a designer for the project and might submit their report by mid June. With a plan to execute work orders by August, the legislator aims at seeing the bird park operating in the next two years.
“This is an ongoing project which I have started as an MLA and will pursue it even after being elected as the MP from this constituency. This will be a new attraction not only for our constituency but for the entire city as it’s going to be a world class facility at par with Singapore’s Jurong bird park. It will be the city’s second zoo after the Veermata Jijabai Udyan,” Kotecha said.
Answering to the questions raised by the audience about the Dharavi redevelopment and the PAP project coming up in Mulund, Kotecha assured people that no land has been given for the people relocating due to the Dharavi redevelopment project. “The opposition has been making various allegations but no land has been given in Mulund for this project. The land sought by the Dharavi redevelopment authorities was the Mulund dumping ground. Since the waste at the Mulund dumping ground will be processed for the next 6 years, no development project can be done there,” he said.
Along with shutting down Mankhurd’s dumping ground, Kotecha also shared his plan of setting Mankhurd free from drugs. Calling the area as a drug den, and the hub of smuggled gutkha, Kotecha also alleged that the drug and gutkha dealers of Mankhurd are associated with his rival Sanjay Dina Patil.
“These people who are involved in illegal activities might not vote for me but the parents of children consuming drugs will vote for me. The illegal gutkha being sold in the city comes from Mankhurd and all the cheap drugs can be found here. A lot of these people have some kind of association with Sanjay Dina Patil as well. I will make sure that I destroy this drug den in Mankhurd,” he said.
Kotecha also mentioned that he was attacked thrice in Mankhurd during his election campaigning and alleged his rival party for the attacks. He added that his opponents have no vision and therefore they are raising the issue of language and violence by invoking a debate about Gujarati versus Marathi. He also shared his vision about a slum-free Mumbai and his aim to complete slum redevelopment projects in his constituency.
"The Modi government has never discriminated against citizens on the basis of religion. These development schemes are for everybody. Since the opposition will hardly reach around 45 seats across the nation, they are having a hard time and are coming up with anything," said Kotecha.
