Mumbai: Campaigning has hit fever pitch for the six parliamentary seats in India’s finance and entertainment capital Mumbai, which goes to the polls on April 24.
Candidates are frantically seeking votes in this cosmopolitan city, where plush skyscrapers stand next to buildings that are falling apart and slums, where conditions are wretched.
With the Election Commission of India closely scrutinising the expenses of politicians and parties, gone are the old days of grand spending on campaigns and voters.
Politicians have instead taken to “padayatras”, canvassing on foot through narrow streets and meeting voters face to face.
Often, Mumbai’s humid summer weather has forced many candidates to ride on open, trucks to show their faces to the electorate, with processions of bikers in tow.
The choice for the voters is much wider and yet Mumbaikars are constantly asking each other, “Who should we vote for?”
Frustrated by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, bewildered by the aggressive rallies of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and unsure of Aam Aadmi Party, many a voter continues to be undecided.
Residing in this 425 sq km narrow strip is a population of over 15 million with a myriad problems that affect a majority of Mumbaikars such as lack of amenities like water supply, sewage, drainage, improving slum localities, streamlining road traffic, providing safe pavements for pedestrians, creating more open spaces, decongesting the crowded suburban trains and even reducing pollution.
Major infrastructure projects like the Bandra Worli Sea Link, monorail and new flyovers help the car-owning classes to travel in greater comfort without having to face traffic jams, “but how does it help an ordinary man like me,” says Vinod Tiwari, a driver who has to use public transport to reach his place of work in a far off suburb. “What can my ‘neta’ [leader] do to help make train level less unpleasant,” he asks.
People are asking how much have these “netas” or sitting MPs have contributed to their constituencies either by raising their problems at the parliamentary level or by using their MP’s funds more effectively to make a difference in people’s lives.
BJP’s Mumbai unit chief, Ashish Shelar, told a newspaper recently that, in the last five years, the five Congress MPs and one NCP MP have done little for the city and its problems.
They have failed to bring new schemes and projects but only focused on constructing toilets, he said. Even Milind Deora, despite being a union minister, has been unable to make a substantial contribution to Mumbai.
Despite the Congress having bagged all five of Mumbai’s six seats, Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi, at its rally in the city on Sunday, focused on targeting Modi and his “development claims.” The rally was meant to be a boost to the coalition partners’ chances in the cit but the rally did not receive a rousing response, especially with the absence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Mumbai North — Sanjay Nirupam
Mumbai North Central — Priya Sunil Dutt
Sanjay Dina Patil (NCP)
Mumbai North West — Gurudas Kamat
Mumbai South — Milind Deora
Mumbai South Central — Eknath Gaikwad
