MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 13: The Brihanmumbai Regional Congress Committee (BRCC) president, Murli Deora, the Congress candidate from Mumbai South, today accused his Bharatiya Janata Party rival, the sitting MP Jaywantibehn Mehta, of colluding with landlords to damage the interests of thousands of tenants in the constituency.At a press conference today, the BRCC president also charged Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and the state government with having worked only to protect landlords after coming to power.Deora produced a copy of the government's review petition before the Supreme Court which, he said, was an acknowledgement of the government's bias against the tenants. He also had a tenant, Babulal Jain, go on record about the threat he received yesterday that he would be ``lifted'' (kidnapped) if he dared to attend Deora's press conference. He also alleged that Mehta, sitting at the Nagpada police station on June 7, 1997, had personally supervised his arrest for building steps to his building. ``All appeals towait until Monday as the courts were closed for the weekend fell on deaf ears,'' Jain added. ``Don't worry, they cannot threaten you,'' Deora added. ``We are all here to protect your life.'' Other tenants recounted how Mehta had shared a platform with the landlord Madhavlal Pitti, who is a party to the petition in the Supreme Court, and called upon tenants to ``accept the cirumstances and hand over their flat to the landlord.'' Still others recalled how they had been helped by Deora through the Rs 100-crore grant given to the city by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.``In my 30 years as a politician I have never put my career on stake. I do so now in the interest of tenants. And I make a personal charge against Jaywanti Mehta and ask her to challenge me in court, if she can,'' Deora said.Producing a photograph of the BJP's party office located in the premises owned by Pitti, he said he had detailed videos that would prove his claims in court.
