Priya gears up to prove she is true inheritor of dad's legacy

Congress MP Priya Dutt, who is seeking re-election from Mumbai North Central Parliamentary constituency, has an edge over her nearest rivals even as she enters the poll fray to fight and prove that she is the true inheritor of father late Sunil Dutt's legacy.

Elder brother actor Sanjay Dutt's dreams of entering the Lok Sabha on a Samajwadi party (SP) ticket from Lucknow were dashed after the Supreme Court refused to stay his conviction of six years imprisonment under the Arms act.

Sanjay, later went on a no-holds bar attack on the Congress and ridiculed Priya for staying on with the party.

But, even three years after his death, Sunil Dutt is still a pull in this high profile constituency and majority of the voters feel that Priya is carrying on the legacy of her parents. Her mother late Nargis was a staunch Congress loyalist and a Rajya Sabha member.

Estrangement in the Dutt family became public after Sanjay's much publicised comments ticking off Priya for retaining the Dutt surname after marriage.

There was even a court case against Priya for using her maiden name during the 2005 by-election but the petition was dismissed. 

Even some Congress MLAs in the erstwhile North West Mumbai constituency, who do not get along well with Priya, wanted Sanjay to contest instead of her on the grounds that he was Sunil Dutt's real heir.

Post delimitation, the erstwhile Mumbai North West has been re-christened North Central comprising 16,69,372 voters.

Assembly constituencies of Vile Parle, Bandra east, Bandra west, Kalina which were part of North West have been retained.

Kurla and Nehru Nagar, earlier parts of North East constituency, have been merged into North Central. Kurla is now called Chandivali and Nehru Nagar is Kurla (SC).

Vile Parle is a traditional Maharashtrian area whereas Santacruz, Vakola, Kalina falling in the Kalina Assembly segment is a middle class area comprising Marathis, Gujaratis, Christians and as well as people from other states.

Bandra east comprises the slum pockets of Behrampada, Bharat Nagar.

Government servants, literateurs as well as Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray are among the voters. Whereas Bandra west is upper middle class locality and home to film luminaries like Dilip Kumar, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. 

Sunil Dutt, who was elected for the fifth consecutive time in May 2004 after trouncing Shiv Sena's Sanjay Nirupam by a margin of over 48,000 votes, died exactly a year later in May 2005.

The by-elections were held in November and Priya won defeating Shiv Sena's Madhukar Sarpotdar convincingly by a margin of 1.71 lakh votes.

Observers say Priya will now be judged by her work and not sympathy as Sunil Dutt's daughter. Priya is aware about it and says she is ready to battle it out at the hustings.

However, rival BJP is still to find a candidate against Priya.

BJP leader Pramod Mahajan's daughter Poonam refused to be fielded from here as it is not considered a "safe" seat.

Late Sunil Dutt had represented the erstwhile Mumbai North West constituency since 1984 barring two brief terms of 1996 and 1998.

Dutt was highly critical of his party for not supporting him in his legal battle to secure bail for actor-son Sanjay in the serial bomb blasts case.

Sena leader Madhukar Sarpotdar, MLA from Kherwadi during the 1992-93 riots was elected from here in Dutt's absence.

Sarpotdar was a controversial figure during the riots having been detained by the Indian army for carrying weapons. He was convicted last year but secured a bail.

The seat has now gone to the BJP in the seat sharing tie-up with Shiv Sena.

Sarpotdar's daughter-in-law Shilpa is the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidate pitted against Priya. Politics is not new to Shilpa as she has campaigned for her father-in-law earlier.

Despite the fact that elder Sarpotdar is a Shiv Sena leader, his son Atul and daughter-in-law Shilpa are MNS office bearers.

Shilpa said that the constituency will see a direct fight between her and Priya.

"Traditional Congress votes will go to Priya. I am banking on the non-Congress voters and getting good response. BJP is on a shaky ground and is still in a dilemma on whom to field," she said.

Shilpa termed as "unfortunate" the negative campaign against her party in the last few months that it is against north Indians and said that in the 2007 municipal elections, MNS polled more than 92,000 votes in this parliamentary constituency whereas the congress votes were over 1.5 lakh.

"MNS has two corporators in the Chandivali and Kurla Assembly segments, that have been newly incorporated in the Mumbai North central constituency," she said.

Inadequate Infrastructure for growing population, re-development of gaothan areas in Bandra, Koliwadas in Khar and Versova, burgeoning encroachments, illegal housing structures especially along western express highway, housing problems for middle class are some major issues in this constituency. 

Priya said she has been a people's MP and was available to them to hear out their problems.

Priya said her first tenure has been a learning process despite several ups and downs.

The 42-year-old mother of two admitted that the election will not be a cakewalk and voters will judge her by her performance.

"My first election win was due to my father and the love and affection the voters had for him was there even though he was no more," she said.

She said despite having two small kids aged three and one, she has tried her best to attend the Parliament and participate in important debates.

Meanwhile, MNS candidate Shilpa says that slums account for 74 per cent of the total voter population in the constituency. And both the candidates agree that zero tolerance towards new encroachments can be implemented only if there is a political will.

Priya says preserving open spaces and converting them into promenades like in Carter Road and developing the amphitheatre at Bandstand in Bandra are some of her achievements.

Working with Advanced Locality Management (ALMs), providing toilet blocks to slum dwellers have been some of her focus areas as an MP.