MUMBAI, Mar 15 (UNI) As the Congress-NCP combine hopes to improve its Lok Sabha tally in Maharashtra, Mumbai North Parliamentary constituency represented for the last five terms by petroleum minister Ram Naik of the BJP, seems hard to break into.
Hectic efforts are being made to persuade popular actor Govinda, who has in the past campaigned for the Congress to enter the electoral arena, against the BJP veteran.
Both the Mumbai Congress and the actor himself are still tight-lipped on the issue.
Now with the BJP re-nomination of Naik for the sixth term, he exudes confidence that his objective of a 'double hat-trick' will materialise.
Naik says he was enjoying the confusion in the ranks of the Congress-NCP to field a candidate against him.
"The very fact that so many names are being floated to contest against me, shows the confidence I enjoy among my voters.
They feel I am one of them", he says.
Mumbai North Parliamentary constituency, with a population of over 2.3 million, is among the three largest Lok Sabha constituencies in the country, outer Delhi and Thane being the other two.
From 1.5 million voters, when he first contested the North Mumbai seat in 1989 to 2.3 million in 2004 and being the only BJP MLA from Borivali in a stronghold of socialists and Congress party, the constituency now has SS-BJP legislators in all the Assembly segments except Kandivali which has a Congress MLA.
Mumbai North comprising assembly segments of Goregaon, Malad, Kandivali and Borivali from Mumbai suburbs to Vasai and Palghar of Thane district has an urban, semi-rural and rural population.
Vasai has four Municipal Councils and 80 villages with Palghar being a tribal reserved assembly segment.
'Each area has problems, issues of its own and in the last 15 years, I have tried my best to utilise all resources at my disposal for the benefit of my constituency," Naik told UNI.
Despite the fact, the overall voter population in Mumbai has declined, there has been a more than 200,000 increase in Naik's constituency with a mix of Marathi, Gujarathi, North Indians and Muslims.
"I am accountable to my voters.
They are happy with the performance report I have been presenting over the past 26 years," he said.
Stalwarts like SK Patil have won two consecutive victories at the hustings and Communist leader SA Dange and former defence minister VK Krishna Menon also have been elected twice from their constituencies in Mumbai.
Naik says modestly,"I represent the middle class of North Mumbai." Rambhau, as he is known to his constituency, says setting up of the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), the sub-sea drinking water pipeline for Gorai-Manori, electrification of Arnala Fort and provision of about four crore new LPG connections nationwide and wiping out of the waiting list are some of his major contributions.
There are 1.9 lakh mahanagar gas connections in Mumbai, he added.
Ever since he first contested the elections for the Borivali assembly constitutency in 1978, Naik's vote share has been increasing and in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, it was 56 per cent as against 35 per cent in favour of the nearest rival of Congress.
He rejects criticism that his popularity had dipped with the frequent hike in diesel and kerosene prices.
Prices of petroleum directly depend on global prices, and all are aware that the international market is volatile, he said pointing out that this results into frequent fluctuations.
"When I explain this to my people, they understand", he noted.
He said the SS-BJP was better placed in Maharashtra.
"Our division of seats is in place and the list of candidates is almost ready.
There is no dispute amongst us," unlike in the Congress-NCP camp, he said.
"It is a test of our performance and the state government's non-performance.
We have several leaders who are crowd pullers in the state whereas the Congress has only one such leader in Mrs Sonia Gandhi," he added.
