Mumbai Underground

The lure of the Muslim vote seems to afflict all political parties during election season.

ATTENTION, BIRDERS: A ‘flamingo’ made of fabricated steel is installed between Wadala and Sewri to mark a spot where flamingos flock to. Kevin DSouza

ATTENTION, BIRDERS: A ‘flamingo’ made of fabricated steel is installed between Wadala and Sewri to mark a spot where flamingos flock to. (Source: Express photo by Kevin DSouza)

VEILED MESSAGE
The lure of the Muslim vote seems to afflict all political parties during election season. The most recent is the Shiv Sena, in the wake of a broken alliance with the BJP. Shiv Sena’s campaign managers took the display of their concern for the community to new heights by making Burkha-clad Muslim women sit among a large group of male Shiv Sainiks during their first public rally held the Mahalaxmi Race Course. Onlookers were befuddled by the seating arrangement only to realise later that it was an elaborately planned public relations exercise. The mystery of the seating arrangement was finally disclosed by a Sena leader who announced that the presence of Muslim women surrounded by Shiv Sainiks showed how safe they were around the Sena and how the party was committed to protecting the community if it comes to power.

ASTRO‘LOGICAL’ questions
The Mumbai Police, while planning its arrangements for the state assembly elections next month, has to budget for more than political ramifications and law-and-order situations. Last week, in an informal discussion over enforcing bandobast while election contestants file their nominations, one question that came up was whether it would be practically possible to prevent candidates of different parties from filing their nominations at the same office at the same time. A senior policeman mused, “If three candidates say that their respective pundits have told them to file their nominations at exactly 12:12 pm, which pundit are we going to consult to convince them otherwise?” Everyone present agreed that certain matters were best left in the hands of a “higher authority.”

Cool diet
Shiv Sena’s young turk Aditya Thackeray appears to have recommended dos and donts to beat the October heat. The party which finds itself on the back-foot after the alliance break-up, has decided to give some health tips to its workers and the police force working round-the-clock during election campaigns. The younger Thackeray on Sunday appealed to workers across party lines to consume adequate water (liquids) to beat the October heat during poll campaigns. The young leader said and also tweeted, “I pray for the health of lakhs of policemen and women who work tirelessly to ensure smooth elections. They work for several hours in heat and pressure. They should not ignore their health and should guard against dehydration.” At the end of a prolonged monsoon the temperatures are rising in Mumbai — both in politics and the atmosphere.

THE NAME GAME
Buculla residents may have to spend a longer time staring at party symbols on the electronic voting machines this assembly election, if they plan to vote for the Congress or a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from their constituency. Interestingly, the two candidates have similar names with identical spellings. Sitting MLA and congress candidate’s name is Madhukar Balkrishna Chavan, while the BJP candidate’s name is Madhukar Ganpat Chavan, their fathers’ names being the only difference. BJP’s Chavan is a BA graduate with movable assets worth Rs 1.12 crore and immovable assets worth Rs1.43crore and has a case against him under section 417, 493 of the IPC for cheating and cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage. Meanwhile, Congress’ Chavan is a diploma holder with collective movable assets worth 3.72 crore and immovable assets worth 9.03lakh. He has cases filed against him under the IPC for dishonest misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust, cheating.

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