2 weeks Ago By Richa Pinto
In Mumbai's Malad West constituency, a tight election battle is brewing between three-time Congress MLA Aslam Shaikh and BJP candidate Vinod Shelar. While Shaikh is banking on his track record. MUMBAI: Traditionally a Congress stronghold , incumbent MLA and former state cabinet minister Aslam Shaikh has been elected from the Malad West constituency three times consecutively.
However, this year, BJP is attempting to gain ground, having promptly announced former corporator Vinod Shelar as its candidate on its first nomination list. Shaikh claimed that BJP has never been able to find a strong local candidate against him and has, time and again, brought in outsiders. This was the case in the 2019 assembly election, when it nominated former Kandivli East MLA Ramesh Singh Thakur, who lost the seat.
"I do not see Shelar as a competitor and am sure that I will once again represent this constituency," said Shaikh, who had just prior to the voting date being announced claimed credit for inaugurating the Mith Chowky flyover, calling it his brainchild. Even when Mumbai North MP Piyush Goyal arrived for the inauguration, Shaikh's party workers raised flags and slogans and claimed that the project had been made possible because of the MLA. Locals, however, said that Shaikh, who had won the last election by 10,388 votes, is treading cautiously this time, recognising that the influx of new voters could shift the balance.
Shaikh is confident that these voters, too, will swing in his favour. Shelar, the brother of Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar, has launched an aggressive poll campaign, with party workers concentrating efforts in areas where BJP loyalists reside. Knowing well that minority-dense pockets, particularly in parts of Malwani, have traditionally supported Shaikh, BJP is honing in on issues like drug proliferation and illegal slums, which it claims Shaikh failed to address during his 15-year tenure as corporator and MLA.
During one of his campaign rallies in Malad's Somwari Bazar, Shelar told TOI, "There is anti-incumbency against Shaikh and once we come to power, it is my aim to make Malwani addiction-free, considering the way drugs have penetrated the area. As a party, we are here to work for everyone and having represented Malad as a corporator, I am sure I will be able to take their issues ahead through a proper channel." Shaikh declared that he has no reason to worry.
"People in this constituency know the kind of work I have done and as far as the issue of drugs is concerned, this has been raised during assembly sessions by legislators time and again, but unfortunately, authorities have not been able to act against it." According to Bhushan Wade, a Jankalyan Nagar resident who is also secretary of BJP's North Mumbai district, Shaikh and his family have had a hold over the area for several decades now-his father, Ramzan Ali Shaikh, was a corporator in the 1990s. "But BJP is working towards breaking this and, hence, Shelar was announced among the first few nominees of the party.
While he often gets referred to as city BJP chief Ashish Shelar's brother, he has also worked his way up in the area and was a known face as a corporator. He went on to become the education committee chairman in BMC," he said..
