For Bandra West, it's the same candidates, the same issues

MUMBAI: Bandra West will see a familiar fight: sitting MLA Ashish Shelar will square off once again with former BMC corporator and Congress member Asif Zakaria . Zakaria had run against Shelar in 2019, too, but lost by a margin of 26,507 votes.

Earlier this month, there were reports that former MP Priya Dutt might contest the seat, but Dutt reportedly instead recommended Zakaria, a three-term civic corporator from the area. She took to X to congratulate Zakaria late Saturday after his candidature was announced.

While the key challengers remain the same, Mumbai North-Central constituency, which covers this assembly seat, has a new MP: Congress's Varsha Gaikwad defeated BJP's Ujwal Nikam in the Lok Sabha elections. Prior to Gaikwad, BJP's Poonam Mahajan represented the seat for two consecutive terms.

For residents in this assembly constituency, which includes some of Mumbai's most active advanced locality management groups, key concerns include managing the boom in restaurants and pubs, congested roads and late night noise. Additionally, locals are calling for better regulation of hawkers, a resolution on illegal slum encroachments in Nargis Dutt Nagar, Nityanand Nagar and Gazdarbandh, and a stronger focus on an eco-friendly Bandra.

Shelar's agenda for the next five years is to rehabilitate slums and ease traffic. Zakaria said people are disgruntled as there has been a lot of wasteful expenditure, especially in the name of beautification projects that are later abandoned. "I wish to be that bridge so that pending works are completed," he said.