Mumbai gears up for an action-packed Thursday

As Mumbai gears up for polls on Thursday, all the political biggies have been making a beeline to the city to give that last thrust in campaigning.

Monday evening was witness to BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi make a pitch at Bandra Kurla, which had seen Rahul Gandhi a day earlier. NCP chief Sharad Pawar made headlines by not sharing the dais as planned earlier.

This is not the only noisy tug-of-war in the metro. As if straight out of a prime time soap, the warring Thackeray cousins, Raj and Uddhav, have been giving their share of juicy sound bytes.

Between the two, they have ensured that there are enough acerbic remarks to send their fans into raptures.

Perhaps, the decibel levels may not be as shrill in the more proper and upmarket south Mumbai, where sitting MP Milind Deora will take on the AAP’s Meera Sanyal, the MNS’ Bala Nandgaonkar and the Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant.

While Deora has won twice here, Nandgaonkar gave him a close fight in 2009. With Sanyal and Sawant breathing down his neck this time, the young MP is working ever harder on his campaigning.

Sheer diversity The most populated city in the country is marked by sheer diversity — here the Rolls-Royce owner coexists with the slum dweller. In the process, the politician will need to cater to a host of issues.

Little wonder then that the city’s lifeline, the local trains, is part of the manifesto of most aspirants.

Equally, what is Mumbai without Bollywood? In the past, stars have done their bit in canvassing for votes and this time around too, there is more than one famous face in the fray.

For instance, actor and director Mahesh Manjrekar is contesting on an MNS ticket in northwest Mumbai. It is another matter that his 2009 Marathi film, Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy , took potshots at Raj Thackeray and his policy of blaming North Indians for depriving the locals of jobs.

In this constituency, Manjrekar will square off with former item girl Rakhi Sawant, who is fighting it out as an Independent. Other contenders in the fray include AAP’s Mayank Gandhi, Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar and Congress’ sitting MP Gurudas Kamat.

In another interesting battle, the late Pramod Mahajan’s daughter Poonam will lock horns with Priya Dutt in Mumbai north central. Phiroze Palkhiwala from AAP will challenge the two women in the constituency.

A fierce fight is in the offing in Mumbai northeast, where activist and AAP candidate Medha Patkar will take on the BJP’s Kirit Somaiya, who has made inroads into the Gujarati pockets of the constituency.

Patkar, however, still commands considerable respect from the massive slum voter base.

Whether this translates into votes remains the million dollar question.

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