With star power gone, Mumbai North to see Naik-Nirupam fight

The Mumbai North constituency, comprising a significant chunk of north Indian migrants, Marathis and Gujaratis, will witness a straight fight between former Union Minister Ram Naik of BJP and Congress candidate Sanjay Nirupam.

Naik, a five-time winner from the seat, lost to Bollywood actor Govinda of the Congress in 2004 polls. Nirupam, who was trying to get Congress ticket from Mumbai North-West, was fielded from this seat, leading to resentment in a section of local party functionaries.

Govinda's frequent absence from the constituency as well as Parliament drew criticism and embarrassed the party. After several rounds of discussions, Congress decided not to renominate the actor and fielded the Shiv Sainik-turned- Congressman, who commands good support among north Indian migrants, the target of Raj Thackeray's violent agitation.

"People gave an opportunity to Congress (in 2004) but they realised that Govinda did nothing for them," Naik, who lost to the actor by 48,000 votes, told PTI.

"The Vasai region, where Govinda got over 46,000 of these votes last time, does not fall in Mumbai North after the delimitation exercise," the BJP veteran said.

Mumbai North has around 16 lakh voters spread over the Assembly segments of Borivali, Dahisar, Magathane, Charkop, Kandivali (East) and Malad (West).

Palghar and Goregaon Assembly segments, where Naik fared poorly in the last elections, are no longer part of the Lok Sabha seat, besides Vasai.

Mumbai North seat has two MLAs belonging to the Sena- BJP alliance and one from Congress. Of the 38 Corporators representing the area, 20 belong to the Saffron combine, which rules the civic body, while 16 are from Congress-NCP alliance.

Nirupam has said there is a strong wave against BJP as the party had its representative from this seat for a long time, but could not address the plight of the local populace.

"The residents of the region, including slum dwellers, are angry with Naik. There are some 50-year-old slums which were declared illegal on the ground that they were on forest land," he said.

"I want to resolve this problem by demanding shifting or regularisation of slums. There is also a major problem of (suburban) train services in the area. My priority would be to get additional railway services," Nirupam said.

Naik said his campaign would cover national issues like inflation, recession and local ones such as protecting construction on forest land and subsidies to fishermen.  

While 62 per cent of the voters in the constituency are Gujaratis and Marathi, 28 per cent are north Indians. The rest comprise south Indians, Muslims and other communities.  

Other prominent candidates in fray include Shirish Parkar (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena), Rajendra Thacker (Professional Party of India), Lakhmandran Khurana (BSP) and local activist Leo Rebello.  

The Raj Thackeray-led MNS may eat into Sena-BJP votes as its nominee woos Marathi voters.