Bandra West seat: BJP's Mumbai chief Shelar seeks third term from onetime Cong bastion

Mumbai, Oct 31 (PTI) Mumbai's Bandra West assembly seat, comprising an area with plush houses of some of Bollywood's top film stars as well as localities from Santacruz and Khar, was a Congress stronghold till 2014 before the BJP wrested it through its city unit chief and high-profile leader Ashish Shelar.

Shelar, seeking a third win on the trot, is pitted against the Congress' Asif Zakaria, who was defeated by the former in 2019 by a margin of 26,507 votes.

Bandra West assembly seat has 2,87,657 voters, comprising 1,49,443 men and 1,38,204 women. It has some of the poshest houses in the city, mainly in Bandra West and Khar, as well as teeming slum colonies apart from middle class localities of Santacruz. The area sees a steady stream of visitors all through the year as people from across the country arrive to catch a glimpse of film icons Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan.

According to observers, scarcity of basic amenities, shortage of housing, slum redevelopment curbs due to CRZ, especially in congested areas like Khar Danda that is home to slums and fisherfolk settlements, are issues facing the electorate.

Incidentally, in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to the Mumbai North Central seat, the Congress' Varsha Gaikwad had got a lead of 3,500 votes over BJP's lawyer-turned-politician Ujjwal Nikam from the Bandra West assembly segment. Christians, Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and Muslims form a sizable chunk of the voters.

Asif Zakaria, a three time corporator, is seen as honest and accessible by people of the constituency and he has been highlighting the work done by him as well as Congress MPs Sunil Dutt and Priya Dutt during their tenures.

Shelar is focusing on local issues, with his supporters claiming he has managed to regain the lost glory of Bandra, often referred to as the 'queen of the suburbs'.

They say Shelar has focused on redevelopment of 'gaothans', open spaces, gardens, adding property rates have gone up in the area due to its redevelopment and beautification.

Shelar has expedited work on SRA projects, road concretisation, local market development, they added.

Shelar is working on the beautification of areas through which a metro rail line passes, including a Bollywood theme along its 350 pillars.

The BJP MLA is also working on easing traffic snarls due to north-bound vehicles coming from the recently inaugurated coastal road, these supporters claimed.

Shelar in 2014 defeated Baba Siddique, who was gunned down recently. Siddique was the Congress MLA of the area since 1999.

Siddique, incidentally, joined the Ajit Pawar-led NCP some time before he was gunned down on October 12. The party is an ally of the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena. PTI MR BNM