Around 10 am on a Thursday morning when the roads in north Mumbai’s Malad were bustling with vehicle horns and motorists stuck in traffic, a small crowd of party workers from the BJP gathered with loudspeakers and party flags.
At the helm of the gathering was Vinod Mishra, who will be contesting for the second time in the upcoming civic polls from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) ward number 43.
After his candidature was announced by his party last month, Mishra has been carrying out door to door campaign in his constituency.
On Thursday, Mishra visited the local market at Malad’s Kurar village along with the slum pockets in Pathanwadi.
In total, the P north constituency has an electorate size of 46,923 voters out of which, Mishra says 20 per cent or more than 8,000 are Muslim population.
Besides this, the population strength in this ward is largely dominated by members of the Maharashtrian, Marwari, and Gujarati communities.
Last time, Mishra won by a narrow margin of 700 votes, following which he was designated as the party’s group leader in the BMC till 2022 – the year when the body of elected representatives dissolved.
Story continues below this ad
As part of his campaign, Mishra visited households of voters, he spoke with shop owners and members of the local business community.
Locally known as ‘Vinod Bhaiya’, Mishra is like a popular guy next door to voters across communities. In some households he offered prayers with the family members while in some shops he was welcomed with garlands.
One of the biggest successes that people in his constituency spoke about is that he was able to push the administration restart and complete several stuck projects of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA). Once these projects got completed local residents living in the slum areas benefitted largely since they got houses in their names.
“In my constituency, people don’t vote on the basis of religion. They vote on the basis of work done. This was a minority dominated ward and yet I became a winner from here by defeating candidates from Congress and Samajwadi Party. This year also I will be re-elected but with a larger margin,” Mishra told the Indian Express during his campaign trail.
Story continues below this ad
“One of my biggest successes during my last tenure was that I was able to get flats and houses for slum dwellers under the government’s SRA scheme. As part of the slum redevelopment scheme, many projects remained stalled and I carried out sit-in protests and demonstrations to ensure they get started and completed on time,” he added.
The ward number 43 will also see a quadrilateral fight as besides BJP’s Mishra, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded Irfan Nawab Khan, while the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) has fielded Ajit Balakrishnan Navrane and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has also fielded its candidate Jayesh Rajesh Pandey.
However, several voters expressed their confidence in Mishra’s candidature.
Sushma Patil (67) a local shop owner at Pathanwadi, said that it was during the Covid-induced lockdown when Mishra visited households to ensure everybody gets vaccinated. Patil also maintained that he arranged food packets for migrant workers who were stuck in ward.
Story continues below this ad
“One of the key qualities of Mishra is that he knows our ward in and out and is well versed not only about the problems but also about their possible outcomes,” said Avinash Singh, another local resident.
Pratip Acharya is a seasoned journalist based in Mumbai reporting for The Indian Express. With a career spanning over a decade, his work demonstrates strong Expertise and Authority in critical urban issues, civic affairs, and electoral politics across Eastern and Western India.
Expertise & Authority
Current Role: Journalist, The Indian Express (IE), reporting from Mumbai.
Core Authority: Pratip's reporting focuses sharply on local democracy and development, specializing in:
Urban Governance and Civic Affairs: Providing in-depth analysis of municipal decision-making, city planning, and local infrastructure, essential for informed urban reporting.
City Politics and Environment: Covering the political dynamics of Mumbai and surrounding areas, alongside critical environmental challenges impacting the metro region.
Electoral Coverage (High-Stakes Experience): He has extensive experience in high-stakes political reporting, having covered major elections, establishing his Trustworthiness in political analysis:
National: Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019.
State: West Bengal Assembly elections in 2016 and Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2019.
Major Assignments (Ground Reporting): Pratip demonstrated commitment during crises by conducting ground reporting throughout the Covid-19 pandemic since its breakout in 2020, offering first-hand accounts and analysis of the public health crisis.
Experience
Extensive Experience: Starting his career in 2014, Pratip has built his foundation across multiple prominent English dailies:
Started at The Times of India in Kolkata (2014).
Relocated to Mumbai (2016) and worked with The Free Press Journal and Hindustan Times before joining The Indian Express.
Pratip Acharya's diverse experience across major publications, coupled with his specialized focus on the intricate details of urban governance and a track record of covering major electoral and health crises, establishes him as a trusted and authoritative source for news from India's critical metropolitan centres. ... Read More
