Aditya Thackeray campaigns, bypoll race hots up

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Sunday flexed its organisational muscles in Bandra (east) with Aditya Thackeray's cavalcade threading its way through the congested constituency which is slated to go for a by-election on April 11.
The Bandra (east) by election has assumed added significance as Matoshree, the well-fortified residence of the Thackerays, falls in the constituency. Second, Narayan Rane, the one time acolyte of Balasaheb Thackeray, is contesting as Congress nominee against the Sena, his last-ditch attempt to resusciate his legislative career.
Shiv Sainiks turned out in large numbers for Aditya's road show. Senior ministers Deepak Sawant and Deepak Kesarkar were present too. “The Shiv Sena will retain the Bandra (east) assembly seat with a handsome margin of votes. This is our bastion. Our victory is a foregone conclusion,” Thackeray told mediapersons on the sidelines of the five hour-long road show.
Trupti Sawant of the Sena is pitted against Rane. Siraj Rahbar Khan is the MIM candidate. Sena MLA Prakash Bala Sawant's death early this year has necessitated the by-election.
Riling Rane for his 'development' theme, Thackeray said, “The Sena has for long been working on the infrastructure issues in the constituency. Rane is merely re-heating the Sena agenda. People here are aware of the late Prakash Bala's sustained efforts to solve the key issues of Bandra (east).”
Poll rhetoric apart, the Sena faces a tough electoral foe in Rane, given his clout among Marathis and his ability to raise resources, said political analysts. Having lost the 2014 assembly election in his home constituency in Konkan, Rane is desperate to secure a seat in the state legislative assembly.
Irrespective of Rane's periodic outbursts against his own party colleagues in recent weeks, the Congress Party has closed ranks for the crucial by-poll. Mumbai Regional Congress Committee chief Sanjay Nirupam, former minister Kripa Shankar Singh and former MLA Janardan Chandurkar have pulled up their socks for Rane's poll victory, say party workers.
“If Rane wins it will be a defining moment for the Congress Party in Mumbai. It will create an AAP-like situation in the city. Mumbaikars will begin to think that the Congress Party can be trusted to cut the BJP-Sena alliance to size. This will vastly improve our electoral prospects in the 2017 BMC elections,” said Nirupam.
However, it is the MIM which is destined to play the spoilsport, say experts. Messrs Rane, Nirupam and Singh view the MIM with trepidation as the Hyderabad-based party seems set to eat into the Congress' traditional Muslim vote bank. The Bandra (east) boasts of nearly 84,000 Muslim voters. The political mercury of Bandra (east) has over the last week soared to a high with Owaisi Brothers' fiery speeches laced with Urdu couplets.
On the other hand, the Sena gameplan is to tap the Marathi voters residing in the state government employees' colony and the MHADA townships as against the Congress-MIM's Muslim card. “The more the MIM and the Congress will target the Sena, the stronger will be the resolve of the Marathi manoos to back the Sena,” argued vibhag pramukh Anil Parab who monitors Sawant's poll war room.
Sawant's clean image will help her at the hustings, Parab added. “Trupti Sawant has a clean slate. She is a low-profile, non-controversial candidate,” he said.
Sawant will tug at the heart-strings of women voters as she recently lost her husband to cancer, said a Shiv Sainik. Moreover, the Sena is optimistic of winning over a section of Muslim voters who, nearly 40,000 of them, backed the late Prakash Bala in the 2014 assembly polls, Parab pointed out.