The civic elections will see some tough battles this time.
Fourteen sitting corporators will lock horns for seven seats in the BMC elections.
The battle for the ballot will also see a tussle between relatives of leaders and heavyweight candidates.
The sitting corporators are fielded against each other because 50% of the seats is reserved for women, giving little scope for the candidates to change their wards. Many top political leaders have demanded tickets for their relatives, changing the entire setup of the 2007 civic elections.
Even as the Shiv Sena could not please all its corporators, it ensured that the list had at least 25 sitting corporators. While the Congress allowed 22 corporators to contest again, the NCP gave chance to only six corporators to contest the election.
“A lot of prestige is at stake when one wins or loses the election. One’s political career is also at stake,” said a Congress corporator contesting again.
While most corporators contesting against each other are veterans, in some wards, senior corporators will face young candidates from families of MLAs.
Mayor of Mumbai and three-time corporator Shraddha Jadhav is contesting against five-time Congress corporator Ravi Raja in Antop Hill (ward 169). Prominent leader in the BMC and two-time Congress corporator Sameer Desai will contest against Raju Padhye, who was recently elected in byelection from Goregaon (ward 50).
In Dahisar (ward 1), Rajendra Prasad Chaube will contest against Abhishek Ghosalkar, son of Sena MLA Vinod Ghosalkar. While in neighbouring ward MNS leader Pravin Darekar’s brother Prakash Darekar is contesting against Sanjay Ghadi from Shiv Sena.
In Dadar, Sena has fielded former corporator Prakash Ayare against Samadhan Sarvankar, son of Sada Sarvankar and former Sena corporator who is now in Congress. In Dadar (East), MLA Kalidas Kolamkar’s son Prathmesh will give tough fight to MNS candidate Sudhir Jadhav, sitting corporator Snehal Jadhav’s husband.
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