Mumbai: Dharavi redevelopment was one of the major election talking points in the Opposition speeches ahead of the Maharashtra election. Accusations of land grabbing by the Adani Group—facilitated by the Mahayuti government—featured in the election manifestos of the parties within the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
In the Dharavi assembly constituency, the MVA candidate, Jyoti Gaikwad, sister of Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad, won by a significant 23,459 margin. She secured 70,727 votes.
With 47,268 votes, Rajesh Khandare from the Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena is in second position in Dharavi, traditionally a Congress stronghold.
With 6,196 votes, Bahujan Samaj Party’s Manohar Kedare Raibage is in third position.
Several Independent candidates from Dharavi stood up against the MVA and Mahayuti candidates. Among them, Ghazi Saaduddin has gained the most votes—3,331.
Dharavi, for decades, has been with the Congress, a Gaikwad family fiefdom. At first, former MP and Mumbai Congress president Eknath Gaikwad was the MLA from Dharavi between 1985 and 1995. Then, his daughter, Varsha Gaikwad, was the Dharavi MLA from 2004 to 2024. She became an MP from Mumbai North Central in this year’s Lok Sabha election. Now, her sister looks set to retain Dharavi as MLA for the family.
Ahead of the assembly polls, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) emerged as a central campaign issue, with the MVA and especially Rahul Gandhi and Aaditya Thackeray targeting PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Gautam Adani.
Uddhav Thackeray alleged that the Dharavi redevelopment tender was tweaked to give favours to the Adani Group, promising that if he returned to power in the state, he would scrap the tender.
The Dharavi redevelopment issue has been going on since 2004. Every time there are elections, the government talks about its redevelopment.
When the Eknath Shinde government came to power, they came up with a tender, which the Adani Group won. The surveys have already started in the area.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
