Mumbai: In the last four months, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Bala Nandgaonkar has visited the high end Parel based Ashok Tower four times holding interactions with the residents.
Ashok Tower has more than 600 families and would be hosting a polling booth in its premises. Nandgaonkar is currently the MNS candidate from the Shivadi constituency where he is fighting a pitched battle against Shiv Sena candidate Ajay Chaudhari.
This is the part of the current trend where the candidates are busy wooing the tower residents. This is especially due to the twin factors....increased participation in voting by the residents living in skyscrapers and shrinking winning margins where a couple of votes are capable of tilting the scales.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) in its initiative to boost the voting process has allowed 709 housing societies to host polling booths in their own premises.
Sarika Poddar, secretary, Ashok Tower Housing society who was instrumental for following up with the ECI to set the booth said that this move will boost the voting percentage in high rises. “The residents of high rises are now becoming increasingly assertive and are demanding accountability from the local representatives. Due to the booths in the society premises, we will see more residents exercising their franchise this time,” said Poddar. There are more than 1300 voters in Ashok Tower.
Dhaval Shah, chairman, Lokhandwala-Oshiwara Citizens’ Association, consisting over 150 societies described it a consolidation of the middle and rich class voters. “We have issues like conveyance of buildings, parking, water shortage and traffic congestion. The politicians who neglected us till date are now wooing us with gusto,” said Shah.
For years, politicians focused exclusively on slum and chawl voters and hardly looked at the towers.
In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) led in 158 assembly segments in Maharashtra while the ruling Mahayuti led in 125. The winning margins of 16 seats of MVA were less than 5000 votes while in Mahayuti, 15 seats have less than 5000 margin.
In fact, Shinde Shiv Sena candidate Ravindra Waikar won the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat by a meager 48 votes in a nail-biting finish.
Waikar’s wife Manisha who is fighting the Jogeshwari assembly seat from Shinde Sena said that they have always been amenable to the residents of high rises. “We had set up Matoshree club, the first of its kind recreation club in Western suburbs for the people of this area. In addition, we set up aerobics centre as well as state of art gymnasiums for them,” said Manisha Waikar.
There has been mushrooming of towers across Mumbai due to the large-scale revamp taking place where chawls and small buildings are replaced by high rises. In addition, there has been upward mobility of the residents to these skyscrapers.
Surendra Srivastava-National President, Loksatta movement and Board member, Foundation of Democratic Reforms said such assertiveness is fuelled by the social media. “The middle class has created a narrative where they are demanding that their voice be heard. The politicians can no longer neglect this section which is increasingly demanding answers from the politicos,” said Srivastava.
Commentaires