Ending weeks of parleys between partners of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Congress on Thursday announced the candidature of the party’s Mumbai unit chief and Dharavi MLA Varsha Gaikwad from the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency.
Ms. Gaikwad, who was eagerly gunning for the Mumbai South Central seat (of which Dharavi is a part) and was upset at not being given a ticket from there, showed willingness to bury the past and expressed confidence in winning the seat in this election.
The seat is currently held by the BJP’s Poonam Mahajan, daughter of the late BJP stalwart Pramod Mahajan. However, the ruling Mahayuti alliance is yet to announce its candidate. The seat goes to polls in the fifth and last phase in Maharashtra on May 20.
“The party has given me the responsibility to win Mumbai North Central. I want to assure my leadership that I will fight to win. This constituency has been a Congress stronghold for many years and we have won it several times. We shall win it again in 2024,” said Ms. Gaikwad.
The seat was held by Ms. Gaikwad’s father Eknath Gaikwad and by the Congress’ Priya Dutt.
Recently, a miffed Ms. Gaikwad had accused the State Congress leadership of failing to do enough to drive a hard bargain during the seat-sharing between the Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT), at a meeting of her supporters in Mumbai.
Remarking that the past is past, Ms. Gaikwad thanked the Congress leadership for reposing faith in her.
In the BJP, along with Ms. Mahajan, the names of Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar and senior counsel Ujjwal Nikam are being floated around.
