Citizens’ groups struggle to find ‘able’ candidates for 227 wards

While the group wanted a common election symbol for its candidates,it was denied by the Election Commission since these will be Independent candidates. “Independent candidates get their symbols just 15 days before the election and this is likely to work to our disadvantage since we will have very little time left for printing our campaign material,such as banners,and getting advertising rights to put them up,” Awatramani added. Moreover,only 30-40 per cent of the applicants are women,while 50 per cent of the 227 seats have been reserved for women this time.

Citizen corporator from Juhu,Adolf D’Souza,the first in the country,had broken away from Mumbai 227 to form Mumbai Nagriksatta. The group has managed to finalise about seven candidates so far. D’Souza will also contest from ward no 60 after his current ward no 63 was reserved for OBC candidates. “Apart from the seven candidates,we will get three more candidates soon. We will focus on ensuring victory for all of them,” he said.

Apart from this,the Loksatta Party founded by Andhra Pradesh MLA J P Narayan also wanted to debut in Mumbai as a full fledged political party by fielding candidates from all 227 wards. However,the party has finalised about five candidates till now. Surendra Srivasta,the Mumbai head of the party,said about five candidates have been approved and in the second and third round of screening,they are expecting about 25 candidates more.

“We feel 30 is a good enough number as this is our debut as a political party. Once we establish ourselves by wining some seats,we can carry on for the party to grow here. Unlike the citizens’ candidate set-up,we are a proper party and democracy cannot function without a political set-up consisting of parties,” he said.