Lok Sabha polls 2014: Two political heirs aim for North-Central Mumbai

MUMBAI: Two daughters of politicians from both sides of the political divide are fighting each other in the Mumbai North-Central Lok Sabha constituency.

Both are national general secretaries of their respective parties and most voters say that this is going to be a very close finish. As Congress’ Priya Dutt and BJP’s Poonam Mahajan battle it out for Mumbai’s North-Central Lok Sabha seat, many predict that the voters may be showing some new trends in the area traditionally dominated by the Congress.

The North-Central Mumbai constituency includes some of the most developed and sophisticated business districts like the Bandra-Kurla Complex, the most conservative middle class residential areas like Tilaknagar of Chembur and also large spaces where minority community resides. This makes the constituency unique in its complexities and makes it difficult to predict which way it will go.

Priya Dutt, the daughter of late Congress leader Sunil Dutt and Poonam Mahajan, the daughter of former Union minister and BJP heavyweight Pramod Mahajan are locked in a tough fight. “The Congress has worked hard in the last decade to improve Mumbai’s infrastructure. Look at all the big projects like the link roads, Mono rail and Metro, which will be soon launching services. We have to work on certain areas like housing as that is the next big challenge,” Priya Dutt told ET.

Dutt is spending most of her time touring residential localities in her constituency. Dutt has the benefit of the goodwill her father created in this constituency. He enjoyed support from all sections of the society. Though Priya won with a comfortable margin in 2009, she might be facing some tough challenges because of factionalism in the Congress party’s city unit.

State minister Naseem Khan and MLA Kripashankar Singh earlier refused to campaign for Priya. They were called by CM Prithviraj Chavan and were ordered to keep the differences aside and work actively for the candidate. Will the MLAs really work for their candidate or will they just pretend that they are following high command’s orders, is an open question.