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.
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
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