The Hindu Business Line : Moderate turnout in second phase of polling in Mumbai

THE second phase of polling in Maharashtra on Monday witnessed a moderate 48 per cent turnout. With voters in 24 constituencies casting their votes, this completes the second and last phase of voting in the State. The six Mumbai constituencies come in for special mention because of the region's economic importance. The city has always been a generous donor to parties, a fact proved by the repeated visits of Mr Manmohan Singh, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Mr Arun Shourie, Mr Amar Singh and numerous others who ostensibly pay a visit to attend rallies but actually work at meeting corporate houses.

It is believed that while visitors from the BJP went away with a smile, other parties were not so well received by business houses primarily because of the fear that any change of Government might slow or alter reforms and liberalisation. The party has been relentlessly wooing traders and businessmen in Mumbai.

Mumbai South, India's third smallest constituency which has the highest number of corporate and industrial millionaires who could advise Governments on policy, has always been accused of poor voter turnout. On Sunday, however, a 33.9 per cent turnout rescued the constituency's image.

Mr Mukesh Ambani was among the first to exercise his franchise, combining his duties as a citizen along with his morning jog. The two main candidates — Ms Jaywantiben Mehta of the BJP and Mr Milind Deora of the Congress — both have strong links with the business community. Mr Milind Deora is the son of the former MP of this constituency, Mr Murli Deora, who is currently a Rajya Sabha MP.

Mr Milind is the President of the Indian Merchants Chamber's young entrepreneur's wing. While Mr Deora campaigned vigorously in the slums Ms Jaywantiben assiduously garnered support from the business community. She claims the support of small and medium-sized businesses in jewellery, metals, textiles, automobile parts and hotels.

More importantly, Ms Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani was one of the prominent guests as a recent function for Ms Jaywantiben's campaign where Mr Arun Shourie, Minister for Disinvestment and Telecom, was also present.

The association between Ms Kokilaben and Ms Jaywantiben is all the more interesting because the Minister holds the portfolio of Power and Reliance Industries has been lobbying hard to be able to expand the capacity of its power plant in the Dahanu constituency by 500 MW. The region has been designated eco-fragile thereby preventing drastic changes like the land reclamation that will be required for plans to go ahead.

Dahanu is an adjoining constituency to the Mumbai North constituency, where the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Ram Naik, holds sway.

Reliance's expansion plans at the power plant involve shifting from coal to gas, a move that had the approval of the Minister. Though he is supposed to be a sure-fire winner against actor Mr Govinda of the Congress, Mr Naik will have to tread carefully since his constituency has large pockets of North Indian voters who are nursing a grudge against the BJP's poll partner, the Shiv Sena, for their attack on North Indian candidates who had come to appear for a Railway Recruitment Board examination.

Other constituencies of interest are the Mumbai North-East where the fight is between the BJP's Mr Kirit Somaiyya and the Congress' Mr Gurudas Kamat. In this constituency, Mr Somaiyya, a Chartered Accountant, who heads the Investor Grievances Forum is believed to stand a fair chance. However, 40 per cent of votes in this constituency come from slums and Mr Kamat is banking heavily on these.

According to a report released by the Maharashtra Election Watch Committee, which was formulated on the basis of voluntary disclosures by candidates, 11candidates from all six Mumbai constituencies have assets well over Rs 1 crore. In the 24 constituencies, there were 36 crorepati candidates whose assets ranged from Rs 1 crore to Rs 20 crore, some of them did not have a PAN number.

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