Mumbai: The fight for the Colaba assembly seat will be between the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'local lad' Rahul Narvekar and the Congress's Marathi manoos, Ashok Jagtap. For the last 29 years, from 1980 to 2014, the constituency has sent an Indian National Congress (INC) candidate to the legislative assembly, but in 2014, Raj Purohit of the BJP wrested the seat by defeating the sitting Congress MLA, Annie Shekhar.
However, this time, the BJP has picked Rahul Narvekar, who switched to the BJP right before filing his nomination from Colaba on October 4. Narvekar will be facing 'Bhai' Jagtap of the Congress.
Both Jagtap and Narvekar are currently members of the legislative council. There are six other candidates in the fray, including Jitendra Kamble from Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and Arjun Rukhe from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Narvekar says he has worked for the constituency and is not afraid of the opposition, that Bhai Jagtap is not a local, unlike him. “Four generations of my family, including myself, have served here and I know the pulse of the people. Jagtap has interacted with the people here for six months at the most and he has not done anything for them, so it will be easy for me to win,” he said.
Some of the most important issues of Colaba are the redevelopment of old buildings and the eviction of tenants on the MbPT land all the way from Colaba to Wadala. Other issues which the residents are facing are encroachment by hawkers, parked cars and bikes on footpaths.
A resident from Colaba’s MbPT and member of the Colaba Heritage Residents' Association, says they are not against development, but it cannot be done by uprooting locals and their livelihoods. If the candidate of their choice belongs to the ruling party in the state, they should address the plight of the common man. There is opposition to these development projects because there is no dialogue and transparency between the government and voters.
The area has a large population of fishermen living in the Geeta Nagar village, at the southernmost tip of the constituency. These fishermen have been protesting the construction of the Backbay Reclamation Park and the proposed Shiv Smarak. The government has assured the fishermen that they will be given space to park and navigate their boats, despite the reclamation.
According to Colaba residents, there are several old trees, and heritage buildings as well, both of which are poorly maintained and in need of tender, loving care. The ongoing Metro III construction work has resulted in a series of unfortunate developments -- traffic problems, new flooding spots, noise at night and new mosquito-breeding grounds.
Population- 6.5 lakh
Issues
Redevelopment of old buildings
Encroachment on footpaths
Traffic problems due to Metro III work
