Mumbai: All eyes on Versova assembly elections

The constituency seems to be the hot seat that many political leaders want to contest from, in the assembly elections

Mumbai: All eyes on Versova assembly elections

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The Versova assembly constituency is being eyed by many political parties for the upcoming assembly election. Given its mix of minorities, Maharashtrians, Gujaratis and North Indians, there is a belief in political circles that anybody will be able to win here.

The Shiv Sena and Congress have four leaders each who are trying hard to get the ticket from here. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could retain the seat during seat-sharing talks, its sitting MLA is also up for a contest for the ticket, with her co-worker.

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The Lok Sabha polls saw just 9,500 votes more for the winning candidate from Shiv Sena, Gajanan Kirtikar, as against Congress candidate Sanjay Nirupam's 59,562 votes in Versova, which is part of the Parliamentary constituency of North West.

Mix of communities

The voting percentage in Versova during the recent Lok Sabha polls was 48.53 per cent, more than the voter turn out in 2014. The constituency has garnered the interest of several leaders as it has an equal mix of minority communities along with Maharashtrians, Gujratis and North Indians.

Congres, Sena leaders yearn

If Congress sources are to be believed, Baba Siddique has also shown interest in contesting from here. The others in the race from the Congress include former corporators Mohsin Haider and Changez Multani, and Rais Lashkaria.

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Traditionally a seat of the Congress, Versova would see a close contest between the Sena and Congress leaders, but after Rajul Patel was disqualified in 2014, the seat was won by a BJP candidate. This time too, sitting corporator Rajul Patel, from Shiv Sena, is said to be in the race, along with another party corporator of the area, Raju Pednekar, and former Standing Committee Chairman and Corporator Yashodhar Phanse (Shiv Sena). Even Devendra Amberkar who joined the Sena before the BMC election in 2017 wants to contest from this constituency.

A Sena leader said, "We will demand this seat during seat-sharing talks as it was the disqualification of our candidate owing to some documentation work which helped the BJP candidate win last time."

According to sources, if the BJP decides to contest from this constituency, its leaders will have to choose either their sitting MLA Bharati Lavekar, or their city youth wing chief Mohit Kamboj as the candidate. The latter is said to have even opened an office in the constituency, and started working on ground level to woo voters.

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