Fifty per cent of the residents of Kajupada and Rushivan, Borivali (E) will be exercising their franchisee during the forthcoming Lok Sabha election as they want change. The residents of seven housing societies had earlier appealed to people to use the ‘None of the Above’ option in election due to the stalled work of road widening project in the vicinity. They had alleged that politicians were deliberately politicising this issue with an eye on the slum votes. Our Editor in Chief Vaidehi Sachin who too resides in the same area had spoke to the residents of this locality and learnt that most of them were willing to vote. Residents said that there is no point in using the NOTA option as it will only lead to wastage of votes.
A slum dweller residing in Kajupada spoke to AV and said, “We are willing to cast our votes if we are rehabilitated to other location. I have been living here for the past 15 years so BMC officials must resolve my problems first.”
A resident of Kajupada on the condition of anonymity said, “I am keen to vote as BJP leader Narendra Modi is leading from the front and touted as the next prime minister if the saffron party wins the election.”
Even legislatures have to face various hurdles while working for the welfare of people as they have to seek permission from various governmental departments which is a tedious and time consuming process. Another aspect is the rehabilitation of the slum dwellers who will be affected due to the road widening project. All these factors are responsible for the slow paced developmental work happening in the locality.
“When BJP MLA Gopal Shetty visited our area on Thursday there was a power failure in the area as residents alleged that it was deliberately done to create chaos and disrupt the proceedings” said another resident of Rushivan.
Mr Shetty had urged the residents to cast their votes as the road widening work can commence after the formation of a new government. He said that the road widening work can’t be carried out now due to the enforcement of model code of conduct and appealed to people to refrain from using the NOTA option.
The BMC had recently started widening the only approach road to the Kajupada and Rushivan areas near the national park. But local politicians soon started interfering with the work, and things came to a standstill two weeks ago.
The residents of the seven building had earlier started a campaign and approached other residents in the neighbourhood to support their drive to boycott all parties in the election.
When we tried to contact Gopal Shetty he remained unavailable for comment.
We also sent a text message to Congress Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Nirupam but he failed to respond.
