Fifteen candidates are in the fray for the Nashik constituency in northern Maharashtra where NCP stalwart and PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal is contesting his maiden Lok Sabha election.

Development and corruption are the major issues in the constituency which comprises six Assembly segments of Sinnar, Nashik East, Nashik Central, Nashik West, Deolali and Igatpuri.

Even though anti-incumbency is palpable in some segments, the factor is not that strong in Nashik city as there is a perception that sitting NCP MP Sameer Bhujbal, nephew of Chhagan Bhujbal, is “accessible” and “vocal” in raising local issues.

Sameer won in 2009 by a margin of 22,000 votes over his nearest rival Hemant Godse of MNS as Shiv Sena candidate Datta Gaikwad ate into MNS’ votes.

However, things have changed now. Godse has quit MNS and is contesting on Shiv Sena ticket, whereas the Raj Thackeray-led party has fielded a greenhorn Pradeep Pawar.

AAP has fielded retired irrigation engineer Vijay Pandhare, credited for exposing an alleged irrigation scam.

The revelation by Pandhare had forced Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar to resign for a brief period in 2012.

Bhujbal, sitting MLA from Yeola constituency, has focussed his campaign on development plank.

“The NCP has brought development to Nashik in the last five years which include four-laning of Nashik-Mumbai Highway, constructing a 7-km-long flyover in the city, development of Nashik airport and boosting tourism,” a party leader claimed.

However, the contest is not going to be a smooth one for Bhujbal because MNS is currently representing three Assembly segments, while Shiv Sena and Congress hold Deolali and Igatpuri seats, respectively.

The total number of registered voters in the constituency is 15,93,505.

Polling will be held on April 24 along with 10 other seats in the final phase in Maharashtra.

All six constituencies in Mumbai which go to polls on April 24 are set to witness either triangular or four-cornered contests with Congress-NCP going all out to retain their bastions against the opposition onslaught banking on a “Modi wave”.

As many as 116 candidates are in fray for the six constituencies, which are currently held by the Congress-NCP.

Union Minister Milind Deora is locked in a four-cornered contest with Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena), Bala Nandgaonkar (MNS) and Meera Sanyal (AAP) in Mumbai South.

Priya Dutt is fighting a tough battle to retain her Mumbai North Central seat against Poonam Mahajan (BJP), Farhan Azmi (SP) and Phiroze Palkhiwala of AAP.

In Mumbai North West, Gurudas Kamat is locked in a triangular contest with Gajanan Kirtikar (Shiv Sena) and Mahesh Manjrekar (MNS). Though starlet Rakhi Sawant is also in fray with her Rashtriya Aam Party, she is unlikely to make much impact.

South Central Mumbai is seeking a triangular contest with Eknath Gaikwad of Congress pitted against Rahul Shewale of Shiv Sena and Aditya Shirodkar of MNS.

Both Congress and Shiv Sena are battling internal dissidence with legislators Chandrakant Handore and Jagannath Shetty being opposed to Gaikwad and former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi unhappy with Shewale’s candidature.

In North East, sitting NCP MP Sanjay Dina Patil is in a triangular fight with BJP’s Kirit Somaiya and AAP’s Medha Patkar.

In North Mumbai, Sanjay Nirupam is locked in a four-cornered fight with Gopal Shetty (BJP), Satish Jain (AAP) and Kamlesh Yadav (SP).

All the candidates are braving Mumbai’s hot, humid weather and interacting with voters taking out padyatras, street corner meetings and door-to-door campaign. So far, campaigning has been low-key and glitz and glamour has been absent, whereas in the past film personalities would come out to campaign for candidates.

In Mumbai North, North Central and South Central, there are 21 candidates each in fray while in South, there are 20 nominees. In North East there are total 19 candidates while the least number of 14 candidates are in North West.

There are 52 independents in contesting the polls.

Late actor Sunil Dutt had first contested the election from Mumbai in 1984 and was a elected representative till his death in 2005. Actor Govinda contested from Mumbai North in 2004.

Now, actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar is contesting on MNS ticket from Mumbai North West. There is Rakhi Sawant who has formed her own Rashtriya Aam Party and actor Hemant Birje of ‘Tarzan’ fame, who is contesting in Mumbai North Central contesting on All India Forward Bloc ticket.

Actor Salman Khan and veteran actress Asha Parekh have issued statements in support of Congress candidate from Mumbai North West Gurudas Kamat.

Actor Amol Kolhe, who is known for essaying role of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in a television series, has joined the Shiv Sena and has campaigned for the Sena candidates.

Earlier, Shiv Sena-BJP would jointly launch election campaigns in Mumbai with Atal Behari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Bal Thackeray sharing dias at Shivaji Park. However, this time BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi has not shared dias with Shiv Sena leadership during his seven public meetings in the state so far.

BJP sources say that campaign has been three-tier in this election. “Narendra Modi rallies, mahayuti leaders addressing rallies, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, BJP leaders Gopinath Munde, Vinod Tawde have campaigned separately and together,” sources said.

According to BJP sources, the Sena-BJP campaign is very positive. “Our seat sharing was locked without problems and we started our campaign much before the Congress-NCP,” they said.

Modi has addressed rally for Shiv Sena candidate Anand Adsul in Amravati. His Pune rally covered Baramati, as well where alliance partner Mahadev Jankar is contesting. Similarly, his rally in Ahmednagar covered Shirdi as well where Shiv Sena is in fray, sources said.

“A public meeting is planned in Mumbai before the end of campaign for the April 24 elections,” sources said.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will address an election rally at BKC on April 20. Sources said there is difficulty in organising election meetings in Mumbai with only Somaiya ground and BKC available.

The spurt in gold and drugs smuggling cases has prompted Mumbai Airport Customs to seek a separate data server of air passengers’ detailed information available with immigration authorities, and three more sniffer dogs to clamp down on smugglers at the international airport.

Immigration authorities currently have the data server which stores the details of every air passenger flying in and out of the country.

This information is required for the purposes of ensuring aviation safety and security. However, the Customs currently does not have a separate data server with air passenger information.

“If we have such data server on air passengers, we can go for data analysis, storage, archiving, and other tasks to hunt down suspects from lakhs of passengers. So we sought the higher authorities to provide us such date server,” a Customs official told PTI.

Mumbai airport witnesses nearly 34 million passenger movements every year and is among the busiest airports in the continent.

At present, the Customs officials depend upon its intelligence information and technology, besides keenly observing the movements of lakhs of passengers on a daily basis to track down the suspects carrying gold and drugs.

“Significant help comes from sniffer dogs also which hint drugs presence with a passenger. We have seven dogs now. Going by the air traffic, we need at least three more sniffer dogs and accordingly, we mooted a proposal for the same before the department concerned,” the Customs official said.

The Customs say that around 20 sniffer dogs are needed for the international airport, air cargo and foreign postal department to detect drugs and explosives. At present, the department is reeling under a 65 per cent shortage.

Moreover, when it comes to gold smuggling, it’s a bit difficult to catch hold of suspects.

“Presently we detect the yellow metal with a passenger through door frame metal detector. However, there were instances where the smugglers managed to hoodwink security agencies and walked away,” the official said.

“If we have access to the air passenger data independently, then we can track down the movements of suspects and inquire them thoroughly,” he said.

“For instance, if a passenger is making a number of trips to some countries, and we can access his personal information and purpose of trips, we can inquire him/her on suspicion if required,” he said.

In 2013-14, as much as 346 kg of gold has been seized from the smugglers by the Customs, a whopping 458 per cent jump in last years’ cases, when 61.66 kg gold was seized.

Drugs worth Rs 105 crore were confiscated in the same period whereas contraband worth Rs 49.77 crore was seized in 2012-13.

Among smuggling cases, a total 187 persons were arrested, which is almost double the number as compared to 94 held in 2012-13.

The Customs is also holding special training sessions for its Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) men on regular intervals to heighten hawk-eyed vigil at the ChhatrapatiShivaji international airport here in a bid to catch hold of suspects.