MUMBAI, SEPT 5: This may not be the best advertisement for the three hundred year celebrations of the Khalsa panth. But for the first time in the city, two Sikh candidates, both equally flamboyant, are set to take on each other in a straight fight for the Mulund assembly seat.In the BJP corner is the larger-than-life Sardar Tara Singh, affectionately called Sher-e-Bhandup for the clout he wields in that suburb. Hard to miss this gent in the trademark safari suit, polka-dotted turban and sky-pointing needle-sharp waxed moustache.The Congress candidate is the energetic limelight hogging Charan Singh Sapra, the perennial gadfly who's led a series of demonstrations against the BJP-Sena government in the last four years as city Youth Congress President.``Woh to doodh peeta bachcha hai,'' growls Tara Singh. ``He hasn't even fought a corporation election, he doesn't even know where the ward office and the police station is.''``I am 33 and he's 62, the people want a young candidate, and besidesTara Singh is an outsider- he lives in Sion, won the corporation seat from Bhandup and is now fighting the election from Mulund,'' retorts the born and brought up in Mulund, Sapra.But the senior Sardar campaigns with a passion that belies his age. In the span of three hours, he dives into a packed Katchi Lohana mass wedding with Kirit Somaiya, dances a jig with a roadside Janmashtami revellers, furiously paces slums and housing societies alike. The `Sardar Rath' follows this crack-of-dawn campaigner best known for his anti-corruption crusade in the BMC.He reels out his achievements in Bhandup ever since he became a corporator in 1984 and more recently chairman of the improvement and standing committees. ``I have built roads, planted trees and increased the number of BEST buses there,'' he claims.Sapra is dressed in trademark Congress campaign gear, white kurta-pyjama and Reebok sneakers and a bright red turban. ``The Sena-BJP government promised 40 lakh new houses, they haven't built even onetoilet,'' the fast-moving Sapra booms into the mike at the Ambedkar Nagar slum colony. He promises new playgrounds for open space-starved Mulund, more schools and computer education for the youth. Tara Singh promises a new electric crematorium and ownership rights for Sindhi tenants.The Mulund constituency has over 2.5 lakh voters. Tara Singh was nominated by the BJP after the sitting MLA Kirit Somaiya was fielded for the Mumbai North-East Lok Sabha constituency. What makes this fight interesting is that over 40 per cent of the voters are Maharashtrians, 30 per cent Gujrati and the rest belong to various other communities. Not surprisingly, both candidates speak five languages.With the passion of a heavyweight boxer, Tara Singh warns that the nine other candidates in the fray stand to lose their deposits. ``I won the 1997 corporation elections from Bhandup by a record 12,000 votes, and 20 candidates lost their deposits.''``The BJP is pitting Sikh against Sikh,'' says Sapra who laments what he callsthe divisive policies of the BJP. He wistfully adds that if Tara Singh were given the Sion seat, two Sikhs would have entered the state assembly.However, even the hard core voters react with classic indifference. ``Jeet jayega, chala jayega (he'll win and go away),'' says 40-year-old Seshamma Echmalanna, a resident of the Azad Nagar chawl in Mulund East. She has been voting for one of the parties for as long as she can remember, but her husband, a municipal contract worker continues to remain unemployed.
