Top guns vie for piece of Lok Sabha pie

MUMBAI, Aug 26: Several political heavyweights including union ministers, former union and state ministers, former chief ministers, a for...

MUMBAI, Aug 26: Several political heavyweights including union ministers, former union and state ministers, former chief ministers, a former leader of opposition and a former Lok Sabha speaker, are eyeing a slot in the Lower House of Parliament.

Prominent among these are Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, former chief ministers A R Antulay and Manohar Joshi, Minister of State for Railways Ram Naik and filmstar-turned-politician Sunil Dutt.

Sharad Pawar: Pawar, a former defence minister and leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha will try his fate on his home-turf Baramati, considered to be his stronghold.

A R Antulay: Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister A R Antulay, who lost the 1998 Lok Sabha elections from Kulaba, has now been fielded from Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat in Marathwada. Kulaba is known to be a Peasants and Workers Party stronghold.

Manohar Joshi: Former chief minister and senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi will try his luck for the first timein the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North-central constituency. Joshi faces B C Kamble of the RPI-Athawale faction. Joshi is popular in Dadar, from where he contested the assembly elections.

Ram Naik: The Minister of State for Railways will contest from his home constituency of Mumbai North. He has been elected to the lower house of the parliament from this constituency four times. He will take on Chandrakant Gosalia of the Congress and Koli leader Damodar Tandel, who is contesting on a RPI-Athawale ticket.

Ramdas Athawale: The former Maharashtra Minister is contesting from the Pandharpur Lok Sabha seat. The Athawale faction of the RPI is a constituent of the Sharad Pawar-led Progressive Democratic Front (PDF).

Murli Deora

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: The prestigious Mumbai South constituency will witness a triangular contest with senior Congress leader and the chairman of parliamentary committee on finance, Murli Deora, facing BJP leader Jaywantiben Mehta and Samajwadi Party newcomer Aziz Lalani. Deorais seeking re-election.

Sunil Dutt

: Mumbai North-West will have filmstar Sunil Dutt contesting again. Dutt has represented the constituency thrice since 1980 but resigned after his actor-son was detained in the Mumbai blasts case. This time, Sena leader Madhukar Sarpotdar, Dutt and NCP candidate Ramesh Dube are the main contestants from this constituency.

Prakash Ambedkar

: The grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar will contest from Akola on a Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh ticket, which is in alliance with the Congress.