Navi Mumbai civic polls: MIM set to throw its hat in the ring

A new entrant is ready to join political bandwagon in Navi Mumabai. With only a couple of months left for NMMC elections, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has all but decided to contest civic polls. 

The Hyderabad-based party made its Maharashtra debut in Vidhan sabha elections last year, as two of its candidates got elected to the state legislative assembly. MIM legislator from Byculla Waris Pathan has now been appointed to look after party’s poll prospects in Navi Mumbai. He says that the decision will be made in 3-4 days after consultation with party chief.

MIM’s main poll plank will be the uplifment of large swathes of minority population living in the city. Pathan asserts that minorities have become fed up with the so-called secular parties. He added that Congress, NCP and Samajwadi Party has been using minorities as mere votebanks

Sensing NCP’s loosening grip on power, MIM has reportedly started the ground work in city. Handful of party activists are said to be identifying local issues and evaluating party’s prospects here.

MIM ‘s entry in Navi Mumbai is sure to alter political equations especially in Muslim-dominated areas. Pathan is confident of winning at least 2 to 3 seats in upcoming elections.

Perhaps, it is too early to say if MIM will have any real impact on Navi Mumbai politics. It might even end up dividing Muslim votes and strengthen BJP and Shiv Sena. Nevertheless, minorities of city will have an additional option when they go to polling booth after 2 months.

BJP dents Sena's Thane Fort, MNS looses foothold

Kalyan: BJP made a dent into Shiv Sena’s Thane bastion, as the later fought hard to hold its fort and MNS lost its foothold in Kalyan.

Meanwhile, former Thane Guardian Minister and NCP’s strongman in the region Ganesh Naik ended up losing his Belapur seat to BJP’s Manda Mhatre by 1,491 votes in a closely fought battle. His son managed to hold onto his Airoli seat.

BJP gained ground at Shiv Sena’s expense, especially in Ambernath, Thane and Kalyan seats. In Thane, BJP’s Mukund Kelkar beat Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Pathak by a margin of 12,588 votes. Shiv Sena’s Balaji Kinikar managed to retain his Ambernath seat, but not without losing most of his voter base to BJP’s Rajesh Wankhede.

MNS incumbents Prakash Bhoir and Ramesh Patil lost their seats to Shiv Sena and BJP in Kalyan West and Kalyan Rural constituencies respectively. The strong anti-incumbency wave is thought to be responsible for that.

Muslim dominated Bhiwandi East and West seats fell into BJP’s lap mainly due to division of Muslim votes, caused by the presence of parties like All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Samajwadi Party.

At 50.61 per cent, Thane district had witnessed one of the lowest voter turnout in the entire state, with constituencies like Ulhasnagar polling as low as 38.22 per cent. The low turnout seems to have benefited the BJP, whose committed voter base of Brahmins, Gujratis and South Indians voted anyway.

Ravindra Chavan of BJP won by a comfortable margin of 46,225 in its Dombivli stronghold. NCP’s Jitendra Awhad also won easily in Mumbra-Kalwa constituency despite a resurgent AIMIM. Shiv Sena’s Thane district chief Eknath Shinde retained his Kopri-Pachpakhdi seat, as he defeated his immediate opponent by 51,869 votes.

Low Voter turnout in Thane district

Kalyan : Increasing disillusion with the electoral process, lack of better candidates and relative prosperity seem to be the reasons behind low voter turnout in Thane district on Wednesday.
The district witnessed an overall turnout of 50.61 per cent, a marginal rise from 49.2 per cent of Lok Sabha Polls, despite a high octane campaign season and money distribution on poll day. The turnout was higher in Rural areas.
"There was no excitement in people on polling day, as they have become disillusioned with all the political parties", observed Farooq Memon, editor of Bhiwandi Samachar. Breaking of decades old political alliances was also a major factor. "Political parties had to bring in weak candidates who lacked mass appeal at eleventh hour", said a businessman from Mumbra.
Candidates ran a very visible campaign. Everybody from Uddhav Thackrey and Raj Thackrey to Nitin Gadkari and Prithviraj Chouhan had addressed rallies in the district. But that proved insufficient in bringing voters to polling station.
Bhiwandi Rural, considered as  Shiv Sena's bastion, saw the highest turnout of 66.24 per cent. Whereas industrial hub Ulhasnagar had the lowest turnout of 38.22 per cent. The fact that large labour population living there didn't have a day off was cited as possible reason for that.
Cities like Kalyan, Dombivli, Bhiwandi and Mira-Bhayander had around 44-45 percent turnout. Here most of the booths in posh areas wore a deserted look. In poorer parts supporters of candidates were seen distributing money in exchange of votes.
The four constituencies of Thane city namely Ovala-Majiwada, Kopri-Pachpakhdi, Thane and Mumbra-Kalwa registered 50.31, 53.1, 56.56 and 47.48 percentage of voting respectively. Residents reportedly preferred spending the holiday shopping with family instead of voting. In Mumbra-Kalwa region, voters' list required updating, as many of the residents had relocated to new addresses.
Airoli and Belapur constituencies in New Mumbai saw 51.47 and 49.61 per cent turnout respectively.

Horror in 'Lifestyle' Home

Badlapur : A 34 year old man hung himself to death after killing his two daughters, apparently because of economic problems.
Pavan Kumar Verma was a resident of Lokmanya Nagar area of Thane. He is said to have poisoned his daughters Komal and Minal - aged 6 and 9 - respectively in his new flat at Poddar Evergreens in Chamtoli area of Badlapur.
"It seems Pavan was unable to make ends meet. He was unemployed since last 8 months. He had to pay EMI of Rs. 15,000 to a bank, in addition to Rs. 14,000 tution fees of the convent school where his daughters studied", said Assisitant Police Inspector Dhananjay Pore of Kulgaon Police station, who is investigating the matter.
The police is said to have found a suicide note written by Pavan which says that he doesn't hold anyone responsible for his death and he's taking his girls along.The autopsy reports of bodies have been sent for furtherchemical analysis.
The wife and the mother of deceased are too distressed to talk.