Pehle North Indian solidarity, then party loyalty

Political parties arrive at an unspoken understanding of not fielding north Indian candidates against each other during the upcoming Assembly elections

Political parties arrive at an unspoken understanding of not fielding north Indian candidates against each other during the upcoming Assembly elections

In politics, there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, just permanent interests.

The North Indian cause, for instance. In a rare show of solidarity, north Indian leaders across parties have come to an unspoken understanding of supporting candidates from their region for the October Assembly
elections.

"This is an unsaid rule for the whole community. We have decided that no two north Indian candidates will contest for the same seat.

Unbeatable? Congress city chief Kripashankar Singh

Even if there is an Independent or a small party candidate from north India, he will be asked to step down," said Munna Tripathi of the Uttar Bhartiya Vikas Parishad, an organisation of north Indians.

Parties say

For the BJP, this firstly means that no north Indian leader will contest against Congress city chief Kripashankar Singh regardless of his constituency.

But R U Singh, the Mumbai BJP vice president, said the reason most north Indian members in his party are hesitant to stand against Kripashankar is not because of some mutual understanding.
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"The chances of any other candidate winning the election against Kripashankar Singh are bleak and not many want to take the risk," he said.

The NCP has, however, acknowledged the new change of rule. "I don't think political parties are publicly taking a stand of not allowing two north Indian candidates from contesting against each other.
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But yes, I would surely suggest that north Indians vote for north Indian candidates," said Uday Pratap Singh, Mumbai NCP spokesperson.

Added a political source, "We do not want any sort of vote division. We make a large part of Mumbai and want our share to be represented well.
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If we have a good representation, we won't have to face torture from others."

Around 40 north Indian leaders from the city are aspiring to become MLAs.

Most of those seeking tickets are party office bearers, sitting MLAs or corporators, making them formidable competitors.

Congress

Kalina: Kripashankar Singh

Chandivli: Naseem Khan

Charkop: Kamlesh Yadav, Geeta Yadav, Vijay Shukla

Kandivali (East): Ajanta Yadav, Rajpat Yadav and Ramesh Thakur

Bhandup: Jaiprakash Singh

Dahisar: Rajendra Chaubey, Yogesh Dubey, Chitrsen Singh and Vidyarthi Singh

Ghatkopar: Chandrasekhar Shukla, Rajhans Singh

Matunga: Rajhans Singh

Byculla: Nizamudin Ryeen

Jogeshwari: Ratnesh Singh

Bandra: Sanjay Thakur

NCP

Vile Parle: Abhiram Singh

Kalina and Mankhurd: Nawab Malik

Dindoshi: Chandrakant Tripathi

Anushakti Nagar: Naseem Siddiqui and Mubarak Shaikh

Sion-Koliwada: Udaypratap Singh

Vikhroli: L B Singh

Dahisar: Narendra Verma

BJP

Andheri East: Rajesh Sharma

Chandivli: Sitaram Tiwari

Dindoshi: R U Singh and Shamsher Singh

Goregaon: Vidya Thakur and Jaiprakash Thakur

Colaba: Raj Purohit

Mumbadevi: Mangal Prabhat Lodha

Mulund: Sardar Tara Singh.

SP

Mankhurd and Shivaji Nagar: Abu Asim Azmi

MNS

Even this party has a few hopefuls like Vageesh Saraswat and Akhilesh Chaubey

36
The number of seats Mumbai has in the 288-seat Assembly

17
The number of seats north Indians aim to win

24
The percentage of Mumbai's population that is north Indian

Inputs by Sanjeev Devasia