Division of votes will decide fate of Naik family in Navi Mum

In Navi Mumbai's Airoli and Belapur, Ganesh and Sandeep Naik face tough competition from multiple candidates, risking their traditional vote banks.

Saurabha Kulshreshtha

Division of votes will decide fate of Naik family in Navi Mum

MUMBAI: In the two assembly constituencies Airoli and Belapur in Navi Mumbai, where Ganesh Naik and son Sandeep Naik are fighting battles for family prestige and control over the region, multiple independent candidates and candidates from the ruling Mahayuti and opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are likely to cut into their traditional vote banks. Sensing this, the Naiks are relying on the division of votes to win the elections.

In Airoli, Ganesh Naik, as the BJP candidate, is up against chief minister Eknath Shinde’s close aide Vijay Chaugule who contested as an independent with full support of Shinde and was getting good response in slum and lower income group areas in Airoli and Turbhe.

The Chinchpada area, it seems, will see a straight fight between Vijay Chaugule and Ganesh Naik. “Thackeray faction’s candidate is out of fray here. Chaugule will work for redevelopment of slums while Naik opposes it. So, the fight will be between Chaugule and Naik,” said Sanket Chaugule,

Namdeo Chikane, who lives in Koparkhairane sector 6, said, “I am from Satara and thousands of people of our area live in Airoli. Vijay Chaugule is also from Satara. But Swarajya Paksha fielded Ankush Kadam who is also from Satara. So now the voters who otherwise would have supported Chaugule are divided.” He added that if Chaugule had fought on MVA ticket, he would have had good chances as he would have got votes from the Thackeray faction supporters, too.

Another voter Pradip Patil (64) hopes that Ganesh Naik will win as he has contributed a lot towards the development of Navi Mumbai. “Opposition is scattered with many candidates. We think Naik is definitely better.”

In Belapur constituency, RSS workers stepped in to help BJP candidate Manda Mhatre as many BJP corporators joined NCP (SP) along with Sandeep Naik. In absence of enough grassroots network, RSS workers along with BJP’s organisational leaders and Shinde-led Sena’s workers handled the booths. A voter on condition of anonymity said that people did not like the fact that the Naiks - father and son – were contesting elections from different parties.

Hema Upshyam, who lives in Sanpada, said she voted for the candidate who can solve the local problems. “We have some local issues here and need a person who can work for us. Earlier I used to vote for BJP but nothing changed, so this time I changed my mind.”

Vijay Nahata, an independent candidate, managed to retain some of his old colleagues from Shiv Sena despite CM Shinde ordering party functionaries to work for BJP candidate Manda Mhatre.

At the Sanpada booth, a local leader working for Vijay Nahata said, “Due to multiple candidates, it has become difficult to predict who will cut into whose votes. If Nahata manages to get votes of the educated and the Gujarati-Marwari community, it may harm prospects of Manda Mhatre. But, at the same time, RSS workers’ line of campaigning – asking voters not to look at the candidates and just vote for the lotus symbol of BJP – was also effective.”