BJP, Sena want ‘Mumbai’ tag on city LS seats

Retain the name of the city, ‘Mumbai’ in each of the six parliamentary constituencies in the city. The Shiv Sena-BJP made this demand repeatedly at a public hearing on the city’s delimitation held on Saturday.

Delimitation Commission chairperson and former Supreme Court judge Kuldip Singh chaired the hearing. Present with him were another member Nand Lal, and nine associate members of commission, representing different political parties in the state, except Gopinath Munde.

The commission was hearing people’s views on its draft paper redrawing the boundaries of the proposed 36 assembly and six Lok Sabha seats in the city on the basis of the census population of 2001.

Former BJP MP Ram Naik was the first to demand the inclusion of the city’s name in the parliamentary seats, followed by Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena), Mohan Rawle (SS), Madhukar Sarpotdar (SS) and Kirit Somaiya (BJP).

Naik said it was important to associate the constituencies with Mumbai. While Sarpotdar invoked Goddess Mumbadevi for the purpose, Joshi cited personal sentiment. “Renaming Bombay as Mumbai was the first Cabinet resolution we passed after I became chief minister,’’ he said. “I’m sure every MP will agree to my proposal,’’ he said.

When Singh pointed said Lok Sabha constituencies in other cities like Delhi did not include the city’s name, Joshi retorted, “Delhi was not named by Britishers.”

A second recurring demand was an exhortation by Buddhists for greater representation. Advocate Mohanrao Wagh demanded that the Buddhists be amalgamated with the scheduled caste (SC) population. Singh said Article 82 of the Constitution stipulated that the delimitation was to be done as per the 2001Census, and he had no role to play in enumeration. “I have to go by the Census,” he stressed.

When Wagh refused to give up, Singh comforted him, “Once I relinquish office as chairperson of the commission, I will join you in a “bhookh hadtal.”

RPI-A secretary, Dayanand Mohite, demanded eight parliamentary seats for SC in the state including one in Mumbai. When too many speakers seemed to be making the same point, Singh snapped at one of them, “Please don’t annoy us. We’ve told you it’s not in our hands.”

Among concrete proposals for demarcating boundaries, MLC Anil Parab suggested that parts touching Mithi river in Bandra East assembly seat be merged with Kalina. He was backed by Sena leader Madhukar Sarpotdar.

Humour in uniform : There was enough to keep the humour flowing: “My Vidhan Sabha seat, Mulund, is like an elephant. He has a face, a middle part and a tail,” declared BJP MLA Sardar Tara Singh. The simile prompted Kuldip Singh to quip, “So, do you want the head or the tail?” It eventually turned out that the tail, an area called Filterpada, had been removed, inspiring the MLA to break into a shaayri to thank Singh.

Contending that the Buddhist population had been under-represented in the Census, one Ganesh Kamble equated their plight with Eklavya of Mahabharata. "In the history of our country, Eklavya was asked to…” he started, prompting Singh to reassure him, “We know more about our history than you.”

Sunita Shinde of NCP, wanted the current Lok Sabha seat of Mumbai South-Central to be retained as it is. Why? Because “I represent south-central Mumbai in my party.” Mumbai south-central is proposed to be split into Colaba and Mahim constituencies.

Mohan Rawle, SS MP, will lose his Mumbai South-Central seat, to the proposed Colaba and Mahim seats. He mourned, “I am neither here nor there. Na ghar ka na ghat ka,” evoking laughter from the gathering.