February 20: One set the agenda, another opposed fiercely, the third remained silent and the fourth was absent. The meeting of the four Lok Sabha candidates from South Central Mumbai truly reflected the political situation in this constituency.Even as three of the four candidates fielded questions from a common platform, Mohan Rawle demanded that as the sitting Shiv Sena MP, he should be allowed to speak last. Janata Dal candidate Sharad Rao put up a fair fight on economic issues. Raju Philips Shirsat of the Akhil Bharatiya Sena kept mum or sided with either of the two. Suhail Lokhandwala did not attend the meet as he was busy with his campaign. "In the past I had been duped into attending such a "fair meet" which was actually a ploy by my opponent. I didn't want to risk being trapped again," Lokhandwala said later.
Surprisingly, issues such as protection of tenants' rights in the wake of the Rent Control Act, generation of employment opportunities and eradication of poverty figure prominently on theagenda of all the four. With most textile mills in the Parel belt closing down, unemployment is on the rise. Meanwhile, the Sena is trying to woo the jobless voters by promising them work courtesy the Shiv Udyog Sena, the party's private employment agency.
However, the Sena's assurance on increasing employment opportunities and it's Slum Redevelopment Scheme has drawn flak from the other three candidates. Rao feels that providing employment to men alone isn't enough. Young girls must be given jobs too as it would help middle-class girls contribute to their marriage expense, he says. According to Lokhandwala, "People of Maharashtra are sick of the Marathi manus rhetoric. Despite promises, nothing has been done for them."
As for the voters, they have been known to vote for the Sena by default. Rao admits that things would have been far easier had it been a straight fight between him and Rawle. "I have the municipal unions backing me as well," he says.
The fielding of Shirsat by the ABS is beingseen as an attempt to eat into the Sena's votes in the Byculla area despite Rawle's alleged sympathies with Arun Gawli. A year ago, Rawle had embarked on a five-day hunger strike to protest against Gawli's arrest. Rawle, however, clarified that he was protesting about the breach of trust on the part of the assistant commissioner of police concerned and not Gawli's arrest per se.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
