I never take any election lightly8217;

In light-hearted ribaldry, the cocktail circuit in Mumbai remarks that Murli Deora is not just a member of Parliament but the city's face...

In light-hearted ribaldry, the cocktail circuit in Mumbai remarks that Murli Deora is not just a member of Parliament but the city8217;s face on the international political arena. At the same time, an ageing chawl-dweller who does not have the resources to get his accident-hit son examined believes Deora is 8220;my man8221; because Deora, once informed of the situation, makes the effort of visiting the family and organising an MRI scan and treatment for the son.

Deora is many faces at once 8211; a reasonable man who chats homely truths, ruthless businessman with an uncanny sense of possibilities, suave individual who mingles with the most-mentioned Parliamentarians and personalities abroad remember he brought Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to the city on his platform?, head honcho of the Congress city unit and blamed for the rise of the Shiv Sena, a smooth behind-the-scenes operator whose networking evokes envy and disgust by turns. This is his sixth lok Sabha election in succession since 1984; he won four except in 1996 when he lost to BJP8217;s Jaywantiben Mehta. Deora believes he is on a strong wicket this time though the non-BJP vote will split between him and Aziz Lalani of the Nationalist Congress Party. Excerpts from an interview to Smruti Koppikar.

Why are you so upbeat about your electoral prospects this time?

I never take any election lightly, not this one also. But the fact is that I have gone to the people with a track record of work of the last 25-30 years whereas my rival does not have any record at all; she did not even open her mouth to speak in the Parliament. I have put everything I have at stake this election.

But why are so sure that people will support you enough for a victory? After all, you first defeated Mehta by 150,000 votes while your margin last time was barely 25,000?

I believe in working for solutions. My constituency may be small in size but the problems are varied and immense. People come with their problems and my philosophy has always been I must find a solution to this8217;. This approach has kept me in touch with all sections of the electorate in the constituency. For example, I managed to get Rs 100 crore for Bombay8217;s development way back in 1985, got old buildings re-built without moving people into transit camps for years, arranged an insurance scheme for those who lose relatives and property in building crashes which are aplenty in my area.

On tenancy and Rent Act, you are accused of spoiling the scenario and taking up the issues only on the eve of elections.

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That8217;s not true at all. The scheme that tenants could become owners by paying 100 months rent was evolved and followed up by me through all the court cases. We won in the Bombay High court but the landlords lobby went to the Supreme Court and this Sena-BJP government has not systematically sabotaged the case there to help the landlords.

Why?

Because the chief of Property Owners Association, Seth ML Pittie, is funding the BJP. He offered his building no 207 in Kalbadevi to the party, even LK Advani flew down to open the party office. So whose side this government played on is very clear. I am on the side of the tenants and they know it well.

So what are the issues you approached people with this time?

The Rent Act issue was an obvious one, tenancy-ownership scheme, slum and old buildings redevelopment, extend computer education programmes to all municipal schools in my constituency and then the rest of Mumbai, de-bureacratisation of the trade and law regime so that traders and businessmen are not harassed, pursuing the World Bank aided water supply scheme launched years ago and the MUTP-II that was halted by this alliance government.

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Why was the Congress campaign in the city so low-key and unenthusiastic?

It wasn8217;t really. It seemed so because the campaigning was not very visible given the EC rules.

But resources were a problem, isn8217;t it?

Except for the BJP which has a lot of funders, resources were a problem for everybody else. But we managed quite okay.

Why didn8217;t you arrange Sonia Gandhi8217;s rally in the city? And, isn8217;t her foreign origin an issue with your voters?

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Her presence would have helped our campaign but we were only given a date of September 8 and it wasn8217;t possible to arrange anything that day since the Prime Minister8217;s rally was also scheduled that day. But believe me, her foreign origin is simply not an issue; not a single person asked me about it throughout my campaign. People are bothered about real issues.