Daughters on the electoral battlefield

Mumbai: The Mumbai North Central parliamentary constituency is being described as the battlefield of two daughters — sitting Congress MP Priya Dutt, 47, daughter of late Bollywood actor and politician Sunil Dutt, who will now be pitted against Poonam Mahajan Rao, 33. She is the BJP national secretary and daughter of slain BJP leader and party strategist Pramod Mahajan who coined the ‘India Shining’ slogan.

With a low profile personality and non-controversial image unlike her brother Rahul who has run into controversies, this Maharashtrian ‘mulgi’ (girl) has worked her way up in the party after her father was shot by his brother Pravin Mahajan and later succumbed to his injuries in 2006. Poonam then joined the BJP, with encouragement from her uncle and BJP leader in Maharashtra Gopinath Munde.

Easy win

For Dutt, her beginnings in politics and contesting for parliamentary elections were an extension of her close association with the work her father did in his constituency. Despite a low turnout in the 2005 Lok Sabha elections, she won with a good majority and in 2009, she got 48 per cent of the votes even as her rival Mahesh Jethmalani of the BJP garnered 21.78 per cent whilst the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), with candidate Shilp Sarpotdar, managed to get 19.94 per cent. Even if the BJP and MNS had got together, Dutt would have beaten them all with a clear majority.

Both women are being watched closely and being compared to their fathers who had an easygoing, affable connect with their parties, party workers and even the voters. Though Mahajan lost the Ghatkopar seat in the assembly elections in 2009, political observers say she has come a long way through hard work within the party — after her father’s demise in 2006. She herself, when nominated, was quick to point out that she had been given a party ticket because of her performance — from the post of a BJP youth wing general secretary to a national secretary and now a ticket.

Key issues

Yet, when compared to her opponent, Mahajan has little experience by way of handling a constituency — with key concerns like infrastructural development, education, health, women empowerment, communal harmony and various other issues that people come to their representatives to solve or take up with authorities.

Dutt, apart from being the daughter of Nargis and Sunil Dutt who were larger than life figures to most Indians, is also working full time for the Nargis Dutt Memorial Charitable Trust which was started by her father in memory of her mother who passed away from cancer in 1981. She says she got into politics by chance at a time she was busy with social work and expecting her first child when her father passed away suddenly.

Not wanting her father’s four term good work of nearly 20 years of community service to be in vain, she says she fought the by-elections in 2005 – thus stepping into her father’s shoes.

It has never been easy for non-Congress parties to find an impressive, strong candidate to contest against first the Dutt father and then the daughter who has tried her best to keep in touch with people in her constituency. With nearly 1.9 million voters, this constituency has a mixed population of Gujaratis and Maharashtrians in Vileparle, Christians in Kalina and Bandra West, which is also home to a cosmopolitan crowd including Bollywood celebrities, and over 400,000 Muslims in Kurla, Chandivali and Bandra East.

Style of functioning

News reports state that partymen who backed her in the past are now complaining about her style of functioning and that the Mumbai North Central District Congress president appointed by her has not been taking senior leaders into confidence about party meetings. MLA Kripashankar Singh, who is facing corruption charges, is peeved at being kept at arm’s length by Dutt.