All is not well for Congress in North Central Mumbai constituency as sitting MP and party candidate Priya Dutt is peeved by fellow party man and state Minister for Textiles Moahmmed Arif (Naseem)  Khan.

 

Khan who enjoys a close equation with union Health Minister and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad is accused by Priya Dutt’s campaign mangers of not getting the Congress block presidents and workers in Chandivali assembly constituency to campaign full-fledged for Dutt in the ongoing poll. On the other hand, Nassem Khan has leveled charges that Dutt has kept aloof from the block presidents and workers in his assembly segment.  

 

Khan, who is also a local MLA from Chandivali which falls in North Central Mumbai constituency had performed remarkably in the 2009 legislative assembly polls, is accused of not seriously contributing in Priya Dutt’s ongoing poll campaign.

 

In the 2009 assembly polls, Arif  Khan had bagged 82,616 votes which was nearly 52 per cent of the total votes polled while Dilip Lande of the MNS garnered 48,901 votes (30.57 per cent of votes polled) and Chitra Sangle of the Shiv Sena got 22,782 votes (14.24 per cent of the votes polled).  It is pertinent to note that Chandivali assembly segment comprises of around 4 lakh voters which is nearly double the voters strength in each of the other assembly segments in the North Central parliamentary constituency— Vandre (West), Vandre (East), Kalina and Vile Parle   

 

In the 2009 polls,  Priya notched 3,19,352 votes, followed by BJP’s Mahsh Jethmalani who got 1,44,797 votes and MNS’ Silpa Sarpotdar who garnered 1,32,555 votes.  Had Sartopdar not jumped into the poll fray, Jethmalani would have bagged the votes which went in favour of Sarpotdar who ensured that it spoilt the electoral show for the Sena and in the bargain damaged the Sena-BJP’s alliance’s prospects.

 

In the 2004 polls MNS has not fielded a candidate as MNS chief Raj Thackeray gave a verbal assurance to BJP senior leader Nitin Gadkari that MNS would not put a candidate in seats where BJP was contesting.

 

In the last parliamentary and assembly polls, MNS had contributed in a big way in the poll success of the Congress-NCP alliance by contesting all the seats in  the city and thereby critically damaging the prospects of the saffron alliance by snatching away a major share of its vote bank.

 

It is to be noted that Naseem Khan is the only Congress MLA in the city among other party MLAs in North Central constituency who won hands down in the 2009 assembly polls without the MNS contributing to his election success.

 

Also Naseem Khan who is the sitting MLA from Chandivali had won earlier in 2004 assembly polls from   Kurla assembly seat which he could not re-contest since it was reserved f or   Scheduled Castes in the delimitation of assembly seats for the 2009 polls. Refer to the 2009 assembly polls results profile below.

 

Trouble has been brewing between Priya Dutt and Naeem Khan ever since the latter expressed a strong desire around December last that he would be interested to contest the parliamentary elections on the Congress ticket from North Central Mumbai.

 

“Naseem Khan’s political strategy was to make a bid for the party ticket by throwing the hat in the ring which could lead to the working out of a compromise pact with the party high command. Naseem Khan desires that he should be made the Muslim face in the state Congress leadership by being nominated as a Rajya Sabha member following Hussain Dalwai’s term ending. In fact in Mumbai, Naseem Khan is believed to be one of the most popular Muslim leaders in the Congress and compared to Dalwai he enjoys tremendous support and is popular among the Muslim community in also Maharashtra. The final decision whether to nominate Naseem Khan to the upper house in the parliament is up to the party high command,” said a senior Congress leader in Mumbai.