Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | Shinde Sena making attempts to breach Dharavi bastion of Congress

Mumbai: The hustling-bustling slum cluster of Dharavi in Mumbai has become one of the most-discussed poll issues between the BJP-led Maha Yuti and Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi in the high-octave Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections. 

In fact, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) is one of the major poll issues in Maharashtra with the MVA making the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah  and businessman and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, as their targets. 

Dharavi  - a seat reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) - is one of the 10 constituencies of Mumbai City district. 

Traditionally, Dharavi had voted for the Congress, however, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena is attempting to breach the grand old party’s bastion. 

The Congress has fielded Dr Jyoti Gaikwad from Dharavi while the Shiv Sena candidate is Rajesh Khandare.

Dr Jyoti is the younger sister of Mumbai Congress President Prof Varsha Gaikwad, a four-time Dharavi MLA and former minister, who in the Lok Sabha polls won the Mumbai North Central seat defeating BJP’s Ujjwal Nikam, a leading public prosecutor who had handled cases like the 12 March 1999 series blasts case as the 26-29 November, 2008 fidayeen attacks in Mumbai.

“Since 1978, when this separate constituency was formed, it has been won by the Congress all the time but for 1978 when it was won by Satyendra More of CPI and in 1995 when undivided Shiv Sena’s Baburao Mane won it. In 1980, it was won by Premanand Awale of the Congress. Rest all the time, it has been won by the Gaikwad family,” a senior political observer said. 

While Varsha won the seat in 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019, her late father Eknath Gaikwad, who had also served as Mumbai Congress President had won the Dharavi seat in 1985, 1999 and 1999. He had also represented the  Mumbai South Central Lok Sabha seat. 

The Gaikwads hail from an Ambedkarite-Buddhist family. 

The MVA, particularly the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) head and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has assured to scrap the current tender and ensure more benefits to the people of Dharavi. “We will give houses to Dharavikars in Dharavi and they would also be able to do business there,” he said during the release of the party manifesto. 

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha had linked the fall of the Sharad Pawar-crafted Uddhav Thackeray-headed government to the Dharavi project.  “The decision to topple the government was taken at a meeting attended not only by Adani but also by Shah, to ensure that the BJP in Maharashtra would hand over Dharavi land to Adani,” Gandhi has said in his rallies. 

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had accused the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) of being anti-development. “Rahul Gandhi is anti-poor. He doesn’t want the people of Dharavi to get homes….(his father and late Prime Minister) Rajiv Gandhi had made an announcement for Dharavi’s redevelopment, and these people were in power for 25 years after that, but no work was done,” said Fadnavis.

The Gautam Adani-led Adani Group is redeveloping the slum cluster through the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd (DRPPL), a joint venture between the Government of Maharashtra and the Adani Group.

Thackeray’s son and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray, in the run up to the polls, had said: “Around 1,080 acres in Mumbai, given free of cost to AdaniGroup in the name of Dharavi redevelopment. Construction of almost 7,00,000 sq ft outside of Dharavi, will earn almost 1,00,000 crores from this, with no revenue for Mumbai. 1.5 lakh families in Dharavi to be ineligible and to be made to buy homes in Mulund, Kurla, Deonar, Madh, Kanjur Marg, Bhandup.”

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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