BJP’s Rahul Narwekar and Congress’ candidate Heera Devasi(R).
Credit: PTI, Instagram/@hira_devasi
Mumbai: The prestigious Colaba seat which houses Mantralaya, Vidhan Bhavan Complex, Bombay High Court, University of Mumbai and the iconic Gateway of India and is home to richest-of-the-rich and poorest-of-the-poor is witnessing a contest between BJP’s Rahul Narwekar and Congress’ candidate Heera Devasi.
Narwekar (47) is the sitting first-term MLA and Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly while for Devasi (48), it's a big challenge.
Narwekar, as the Speaker, has presided over the disqualification petitions involving Shiv Sena vs Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP vs NCP (SP).
The Narwekar family is very active in the Colaba-Cuffe Parade area in politics involving the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation.
Narwekar's father Suresh Narwekar was a municipal corporator from the Colaba area.
His brother Makarand Narwekar is a two-term corporator from the Colaba area while his sister-in-law Harshita Narwekar is also a former corporator from Cuffe Parade area.
Colaba falls under the Mumbai South constituency, which is currently represented by Arvind Sawant of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT).
Previously, after the Lok Sabha polls, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar expressed concern over “urban apathy” and flagged the low voter turnout in Colaba.
Couple of days ago, Maharashtra’s Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dr Kiran Kulkarni had an open dialogue with residents at the Bay View Marina Garden at Cuffe Parade to push for increased voting in the constituency.
"In the Lok Sabha elections Colaba constituency was one amongst those that registered lower turnout. Colaba is one of the important constituencies in the state and the country and lower voting percentage is a matter of serious concern,” he said during his dialogue with local residents.
In fact, Narwekar and Devasi are undertaking extensive door-to-door campaigning and also urging residents to come out and vote.
Narwekar is pushing for ‘state capital region’ for Colaba as one of his poll promises.
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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