The Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency is set to witness an interesting four-cornered battle between sitting Congress MP Gurudas Kamat, Shiv Sena leader Gajanan Kirtikar, AAP’s Mayank Gandhi and movie director Mahesh Manjrekar from MNS.

Manjrekar’s presence is widely being seen by political observers as dampening Kirtikar’s chances, though the Sena leader has put up a brave face and continued his campaign, telling voters that a split in anti-Congress votes would eventually benefit the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance.

In 2009, Gurudas Kamat had won Mumbai North West by more than 38,000 votes, after a with multi cornered contest.

However, with Aam Aadmi Party in the fray this time, besides an Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s (MNS) candidate like Mahesh Manjrekar, political observers have said that the final result would be unpredictable.

With more than 1.6 million voters, Mumbai North West is home to a predominantly Marathi and Gujarati population, along with North Indians, Muslims and Dalits.
The sprawling constituency comprises elite areas of Juhu and Vile Parle West, which is home to television personalities and Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan.

After the constituency’s delimitation in 2009, Vile Parle East, Santacruz, Bandra and Khar which were part of Mumbai North West were incorporated in the neighboring Mumbai North Central constituency, while Jogeshwari and Goregaon were included in Mumbai North West.

The constituency has always been a Congress stronghold, except in 1977 and 1980, when the Janata Party wave had swept the country and the seat was represented by eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani on a Janata Party ticket first and later on a BJP ticket.

Congress stalwarts like Shantilal Shah, Hari Ramchandra Gokhale were MPs from here. The late actor-turned-politician Sunil Dutt held sway over the area since his first election in 1984.

He opted out of the race in 1996 and 1998, after his son actor Sanjay Dutt did not get bail under TADA. Congress nominees lost to Shiv Sena’s Madhukar Sarpotdar. During the 2005 by-election, Sunil Dutt’s daughter Priya Dutt was elected, defeating Shiv Sena’s Madhukar Sarpotdar by more than 1.71 lakh votes.
In 2009, Gurudas Kamat of the Congress who has always represented the Mumbai North East Lok Sabha seat had to shift to Mumbai North West.

He defeated Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar, a four time legislator from Goregaon by more than 38,000 votes, while the MNS candidate Shalini Thackeray polled more than one lakh votes.

Lack of infrastructure and housing as well as proliferation of slums have been the pressing issues of this constituency.

Though the Versova-Ghatkopar metro railway line is likely to commence soon, there is displeasure that its first phase took more than six years to complete.

However, the Congress said that rehabilitation of people affected by the metro project took up a lot of time. Congress legislator from Versova, Baldev Khosa said that Mumbai North West is a “mini India”, with a mixed population and a developing area.

In an unfortunate incident, an elderly couple was charred to death while two others were injured when fire broke out at the 11th and 12th floor of Sundarban Park building in Samtanagar area in Thane.

Shivajirao Choughule, 82, and his wife Nirmala, 78 were killed in the fire as they could not escape the flames, while their daughter and grandson were trapped for nearly two hours on the ledge outside the balcony at 12th floor, officials said.

While their daughter Ranjana Save and her 16-year-old son Vikramaditya, who lived in the adjacent flat (which too was engulfed in flames and smoke) were trapped as they climbed on the ledge.

The mother-son duo had to be taken out through the staircase as the specialised ‘snorkel ladders’ of the Fire Brigade could not reach up to the spot where they were stranded.

According to reports, the fire, which residents claim broke out at around 6:00 am today, was caused due to a short circuit.

Fire Brigades were rushed to the spot immediately, which brought the fire under control. Six firemen entered the flat through stairs and rescued the trapped people.

The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital, while the elderly couple was declared ‘brought dead’ by the doctors.

Four separate cases of broad daylight murders including those of two housewives, were registered in the district on a single, police said.

According to district Rural police, a 25-year-old man was roughed up in Gangripada locality on Sunday by 5-6 persons with sharp weapons after tying him to a lamp post following which her died on the spot.

The killers have been identified as Masoom, Bacchi and thier gang but no arrests were made. An offence has been registered under sections 302,143,147,148,149 and 341 of the IPC, police added.

In other three incidents which took place in the limits of the Thane Police Commissionerate yesterday, three persons including two housewives were done to death.

In Kon village, a 32-year-old housewife Tarannum Aslam Khan was done to death by her husband and dumped in a gunny bag and thrown near a pipeline, the said.

The body was recovered later and her husband taken into custody. The Kon police have registered an offence under sections 302, 498-A and 201 of the IPC against the accused.

In another incident that took place near Badlapur railway station at about 10.40 pm, an estate agent was shot dead.

The victim Santosh D Salvi (40) was consuming liquor with his friend. A quarrel ensued between the two over some issue and accused Mahendra Bhagul (38) pulled out a fire arm and shot Salvi him at point blank range.

Bhagul was charged under sections 302 and provisions of the Arms Act before arrest.

In another incident, a housewife from the Lav Kush housing society in Kolsewadi locality wh0 was alone at home was brutally killed by some unknown persons between 1500 and 2000 hours on Sunday, police said.

The victim was identified as Poonam Gajrani, 48 and the killers had gate crashed into the house and attacked her with the gas cylinder which they hit on her head. The later o stabbed and strangulated her using a wire.

The killers then decamped with cash worth Rs 40-45,000 police said.

The police have registered an offence under section 460 of the IPC and probing the day light murder-dacoity.

Slamming political parties for fielding some “corrupt and criminal” candidates, social activist Anna Hazare said that he would campaign against two former ministers in Maharashtra, who have been given Lok Sabha tickets by Shiv Sena and NCP.

“In some constituency or other, most of the political parties have fielded candidates who are accused of corruption and have criminal background. Before the elections, these parties claim that they are strongly against corruption. But now we find a difference in what they say and what they practice,” Hazare told.

Targetting Shiv Sena and NCP, Hazare said he would campaign against Shirdi Shiv Sena candidate, Baban Gholap and Osmanabad NCP candidate, Padamsinh Patil in the Lok Sabha election.

Following an agitation launched by Hazare when Gholap and Patil were in the cabinets, both had been dropped as ministers. Patil was a cabinet member in the Congress government prior to 1995, while Gholap a minister during the Shiv Sena-BJP rule from 1995 to 1999.

“I have all the proof against Gholap. He had been removed from the Maharashtra cabinet during the Shiv Sena-BJP rule following charges of corruption against him. However, despite knowing this, Gholap was given candidature by the Shiv Sena and its chief Uddhav Thackeray.

“Similarly, I was surprised that Padamsinh Patil, the prime accused in Pawanraje Nimbalkar murder case, was given ticket by the NCP. The party has fielded a candidate, who had been in jail,” Hazare said.

“Therefore, I am going to write letters to Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as well as NCP supremo Sharad Pawar seeking an explanation from them on people’s behalf for fielding Gholap and Patil. I will campaign against Gholap and Patil and will expose their anti-social side,” he added.

Hazare urged the voters to openly ask the leaders of all parties why they give tickets to such criminals and corrupt persons.

Narendra Modi will answer queries on farmers’ issues by people across the country and abroad through BJP’s ‘Chai Pe Charcha with NaMo’ programme on March 20.

The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate will interact with public at locations across the country through Internet from Vidarbha in Maharashtra, which has witnessed a large number of farmers’ suicides in the past few years due to successive crop failures and poverty.

Modi had earlier answered public queries on good governance and women’s issues in the previous two such events.

The party is using the ‘tea-seller’ jibe hurled at Modi by his rivals to its advantage to reach out to voters.

The unique election campaign strategy stems from the remark of Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar who had said Modi could not become Prime Minister but could certainly serve tea at the January 17 AICC Session.

Five mediums – DTH, satellite, Internet, mobile phones and social media – will be used for the campaign that entails “share, ask and suggest”.