Direct contest in all six LS seats of Mumbai

Battlelines are drawn for all the six Lok Sabha seats of Mumbai, which is set to witness fierce direct contests.

Mumbai goes to polls in the fourth phase of elections in Maharashtra on April 29.

Mumbai had been a traditional Congress bastion. After delimitation of constituencies in 2009, the Congress-NCP swept all the seats, but in 2014, riding on the Narendra Modi-wave, the BJP-Shiv Sena combine wrested all the seats.

"In 2009, while the Congress won five seats and NCP one, in 2014, BJP and Shiv Sena won three seats each. This time the situation is quite open-ended and is going to be tough," said veteran social activist Dinesh Sadh.

The NCP has not changed its candidate and Sanjay Dina Patil would be contesting the North East seat.

The BJP had to change sitting MP from Mumbai North East, Kirit Somaiya, as senior leaders were unhappy with him and so was Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. A group of senior leaders had complained against him to BJP president Amit Shah. Even Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' intervention could not help him. In his place, Manoj Kotak got the nomination.

For Congress, lot of water has flowed under the bridge and in a surprising development, Sanjay Nirupam, who was the president of Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC), was replaced by Milind Deora.

More surprising was Nirupam shifting from his traditional Mumbai North seat to Mumbai North West and taking on Shiv Sena's Gajanan Kirtikar. Nirupam was shifted as last time he was defeated by a huge margin by Gopal Shetty, and Gurudas Kamat, who used to represent Mumbai North West, passed away.

In Nirupam's place, actress and model Urmila Matondkar was brought in to take on Shetty.

In Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South Central and Mumbai South, the line up remains the same like 2014.

In Mumbai North Central, it is a fight between Priya Dutt, the daughter of the late Bollywood couple Sunil Dutt and Nargis and sister of actor Sanjay Dutt, and Poonam Mahajan, the daughter of the late Pramod Mahajan and niece of the late Gopinath Munde.

Similarly, it would be contest between Rahul Shewale of Shiv Sena and Eknath Gaikwad of the Congress in Mumbai South Central.

In Mumbai South, Deora, the son of the late Congress loyalist Murli Deora, would take on Shiv Sena's Arvind Sawant.

The question ahead of polling in India's commercial capital is whether it is willing to give Prime Minister Narendra Modi another term or will opt for a change and support Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

One of the key issues in Mumbai and larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region is the rail and road infrastructure, improvement in public transport and expansion of metro on the north-south axis. Cutting of mangroves, Coastal Regulation Zone, encroachment of forests too are some of the issues.

"But with changes and amendments in CRZ, we are exposing the population to the coastline - and people are vulnerable to tide surges, impact of cyclone and tsunami," said coastal ecologist Vivek Kulkarni.

“We have experienced marooning of Chowpatty, Mithi River floods in Mumbai and massive devastation in Kerala very recently. Yet, we do not learn any lessons from the nature’s warnings,” environmentalist B N Kumar, director of The Nature Connect, lamented. "Rampant construction is taking place in Mumbai," he said.

THE BIG FIGHTS

Mumbai South: Arvind Sawant (Sena) vs Milind Deora (Cong)

Mumbai South Central: Rahul Shewale (Sena) vs Eknath Gaikwad (Cong)

Mumbai North Central: Poonam Mahajan (BJP) vs Priya Dutt (Cong)

Mumbai North East: Sanjay Dina Patil (NCP) vs Manoj Kotak (BJP)

Mumbai North West: Gajanan Kirtikar (Sena) vs Sanjay Nirupam (Cong)

Mumbai North: Gopal Shetty (BJP) vs Urmila Matondkar (Cong)

2014 RESULTS

Mumbai South: Arvind Sawant (Sena) defeated Milind Deora (Congress)

Mumbai South Central: Rahul Shewale (Sena) defeated Eknath Gaikwad

Mumbai North Central: Poonam Mahajan (BJP) defeated Priya Dutt (Cong)

Mumbai North East: Kirit Somaiya (BJP) defeated Sanjay Dina Patil (NCP)

Mumbai North West: Gajanan Kirtikar (Sena) defeated Gurudas Kamat (Cong)

Mumbai North: Gopal Shetty (BJP) defeated Sanjay Nirupam (Cong)

2009 RESULTS
Mumbai South: Milind Deora (Cong) defeated Mohan Rawale (Sena)
Mumbai South Central: Eknath Gaikwad (Cong) defeated Suresh Gambhir (Sena)
Mumbai North Central: Priya Dutt (Cong) defeated Mahesh Jethmalani (BJP)
Mumbai North East: Sanjay Dina Patil (NCP) defeated Kirit Somaiya (BJP
Mumbai North West: Gurudas Kamat (Cong) defeated Gajanan Kirtikar (Sena)
Mumbai North: Sanjay Nirupam (Cong) defeated Ram Naik (BJP)