Congress sticks to 15 of its 17 sitting MLAs

Two more sitting corporators are set to get tickets, sources confirmed.

Despite being annihilated during the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress has decided to retain almost all sitting legislators from the party for the upcoming Assembly polls. Reliable sources in the party confirmed that 15 out of the 17 sitting legislators would be given the election tickets. The two expected to miss out are Colaba MLA Annie Shekhar and Sion-Koliwada MLA Jagannath Shetty.

The decision is interesting for the Congress had lagged in almost all Assembly segments it represents during the Assembly poll. The only exception to this trend were two South Mumbai Assembly seats of Mumbadevi and Byculla.

While certain sections of the Congress had sought denial of ticket to Vile Parle MLA Krishna Hegde too, sources said that he was likely to be retained. During the LS poll, the Congress lagged the BJP by over 47,000 votes in this Assembly pocket.

The names of Annie Shekhar’s son and former Congress corporator Vinod Shekhar, and former leader of opposition in the BMC Dyanraj Nikam, who is a sitting corporator, were under consideration for the Colaba seat. The race for replacement for Shetty has also narrowed down to two former corporators- Upendra Doshi and Ravi Raja.

Two more sitting corporators Manoj Jamsudkar (Sewri Assembly seat), and Pravin Chheda (Ghatkopar East) are set to get tickets, sources confirmed.

While Jamsudkar, formerly with the Nationalist Congress Party, is a former-aide of NCP heavyweight Chhagan Bhujbal, Chheda had switched over from the BJP before Mumbai civic polls in 2012. Another former BJP corporator Rajesh Sharma, who similarly switched sides, will contest on a Congress ticket from Jogeshwari (E), which is a Shiv Sena-stronghold.

With party’s Mumbai chief and former legislator Janardan Chandurkar not keen to contest polls, the race for the crucial Bandra (East) Assembly ticket is between party’s state spokesperson Sachin Sawant and city leader Subhash Chauhan. Ironically, both leaders do not hail from the constituency, which is the home constituency of Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray and is represented by SS MLA Prakash Sawant.

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Party sources conceded that retaining all the 17 seats in Mumbai will be difficult for the party, with Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s appeal among Marathi voters losing some of its sheen. The MNS factor had been key to Congress’s success in Mumbai during the 2009 assembly poll, when it wrested over 50% of the 36 Assembly seats.
sandeep.ashar@expressindia.com

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