Andheri residents vote to choose their poll candidate

Over 300 residents of Andheri (west) on Sunday elected Juhu resident Hansel D’souza (49) as the candidate who will contest from their constituency for the state polls to be held on October 13, reports Sayli Udas Mankikar.

Over 300 residents of Andheri (west) on Sunday elected Juhu resident Hansel D’souza (49) as the candidate who will contest from their constituency for the state polls to be held on October 13.

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After demonstrating citizens’ power in 2007 — people elected Adolf D’souza as their citizen consensus candidate for civic elections and voted him to power as Juhu corporator — people have decided to show they can make a difference in the assembly elections too.

The election was conducted by the Jagrut Nagrik Manch (JNM), a citizen’s initiative representing over 53 non-governmental organisations and groups from Mumbai.

“Taking action against deaths on railway tracks, a ban on land reclamation and preventing farmer suicides are my priorities,” said a charged Hansel, who has been involved in issues such as restoring the beach and the Vote Juhu campaign that led to Adolf’s victory since 2000.

Four candidates had filed their nominations and D’souza was elected after a two-hour interview-cum-voting session.

Of the 300 people who cast their votes, 148 are Area Sabha Representatives (ASR), that is, people nominated from different areas in Andheri (west), representing around two lakh of the voting population.

The interviews were conducted by an panel of well-known people, including actor and social worker Shabana Azmi, Magsaysay award winner L.C. Jain, Ajit Ranade from the Association of Democratic Rights, Kishore Goradia from the Sadbhavana Sangh, Jasmine Shah from Janagraha and Anshika Asrani from Citizens Take Charge (CTC).

“After tasting success once, we are ready to take a bigger step. We have a vision plan ready, and we have a promising candidate. Now we have to win,” said Azmi.