In the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections to be held on January 15, the G South Ward covering Worli is set to witness a straight fight between the two factions of the Shiv Sena over retaining this stronghold of the erstwhile undivided party.
G South remained the safest seat for the undivided Shiv Sena for many decades as it housed traditional Marathi voters hailing from middle-class and lower middle-class families, with many of them being erstwhile mill workers who later became the cadre force of the party. Be it the legislative election or the civic polls, Worli remained a ‘safe’ seat for the Sena. A testament to the fact is that since 2014, two of Mumbai’s mayors and one deputy mayor were elected from Worli.
However, following the vertical split in the Sena – three out of the seven former sitting corporators shifted to the Eknath Shinde-led faction of the party. The split in the party also led to a significant churn in the voter base. In the last assembly elections, Shiv Sena UBT’s Aaditya Thackeray managed to defeat Shiv Sena’s Milind Deora by a slender margin of 8,800 votes. Whereas in 2019, Aaditya Thackeray had won by a landslide margin of 67,427 votes.
At the civic level, Worli falls under the G South ward of the BMC, which covers seven corporator seats (193-199). Between 2017 and 2022, all seven seats were held by Sena corporators, of whom Samadhan Sarvankar, Santosh Kharat and Datta Narvankar have joined the Shinde-led party from which they aspire to get the tickets this time. The other four former corporators – Hemangi Worlikar, Ashish Chemburkar, Snehal Ambekar and Kishori Pednekar – are with the UBT faction of the Sena. Pednekar was Mumbai’s last-elected Mayor, while Ambekar served as Mumbai’s mayor between 2014 and 2017, and Worlikar was the deputy mayor from 2017 to 2019.
However, the ward is not without its own share of problems. At present, Worli is witnessing a slew of cluster development projects, which include the BDD chawl project as well as the redevelopment work of the Jijamata slums. Speaking to The Indian Express, Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray said that if the Sena UBT is elected, they will try to balance sustainability and infrastructure work.
“One of the key objectives of my party will be to protect and enrich all our open spaces. These spaces are like oxygen hotspots in the city, and they need to be protected and made greener, especially at a time when the traffic density is rising and so much infrastructure project work is also underway. Another key objective would be to make the area more pedestrian-friendly. We had implemented pilot projects in these areas before and would like to take them forward on a large scale in the days to come,” Aaditya Thackeray said.
Even though three of the key former corporators from this ward switched to the Shinde faction following the split in the party, Aaditya Thackeray said that it’s not a case of concern for him as his party has had a long history of defections.
“At present, there are many contenders for all seven constituencies in Worli. At the same time, the voters know who the real Sena is… so there’s no way that we have to worry about anything,” he added.
Meanwhile, senior members from the Shinde camp are confident about making inroads into this constituency through the upcoming civic polls. Speaking to The Indian Express, Rajya Sabha MP and senior Shinde Sena leader Milind Deora said there was heavy anti-incumbency against the Sena UBT in Worli.
“From Worli, there is one elected MLA and MP (Lok Sabha), two MLCs, and two former Mayors and yet the ward is in shambles. There are bad roads and basic civic issues like waste management and non-uniform water supply continue to exist there. Even though our party workers don’t have an official position, local people are still approaching us with their issues, and we have been raising them with the authorities to resolve them,” Deora said.
He added that one of the primary objectives of his party will be to make sure a series of cluster development projects are launched.
“Our primary objective will be to make sure all those living in slums get houses of their own. In the next few years, Worli is set to become one of the fastest places of redevelopment with all the rehabilitation component projects being achieved and assurances that were made to people being fulfilled,” Deora further said.
Meanwhile, the former corporators have already initiated door-to-door campaigning for their respective parties in the wake of the elections. Former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar, who is eyeing a fourth term as a corporator, said, “In a city like Mumbai, there are multiple planning authorities like MMRDA and SRA, and all of them work for public infrastructure. Therefore, it is important for a corporator to have the right experience, which eventually enables them to resolve any issue with utmost promptness.”