Ward 198 comprising 32 BDD chawls of Parel, Bawla Majid area, Gandhinagar, Ashok Nagar and Railway colony has a total of 57,000 voters of which 90 per cent voters are Maharashtrians.
Parel BDD chawl has always been a bastion of the Shiv Sena with a majority of Maharashtrians in the area. In the 2017 BMC elections to be held on February 21, the Sena is fighting to retain its power in the area. Current Mayor, Snehal Ambekar, who is contesting from ward 198 (Parel BDD) conducted a public rally on Friday evening. To ensure she draws support of Marathi voters in the ward, she was accompanied by well-known Marathi actress Suchitra Bandekar, wife of actor and Shiv Sainik Aadesh Bandekar.
Ward 198 comprising 32 BDD chawls of Parel, Bawla Majid area, Gandhinagar, Ashok Nagar and Railway colony has a total of 57,000 voters of which 90 per cent voters are Maharashtrians. To retain all Marathi votes, Bandekar, who has a huge fan following joined the public rally.
Both, Bandekar and his wife have been campaigning for the civic elections across the city for the last few days to woo Marathi voters.
"The real Mumbaikars are the ones who have lived in the city not Nagpur," Suchitra Bandekar said, adding that all the Shiv Sena candidates for the BMC elections are residents of the city.
She called the ladies present at the rally her vahinis (sister-in-laws) of her husband, a term Aadesh Baandekar uses to address the women on the popular Marathi reality show, which has a huge female following.
Bandekar's speech concentrated on these female voters in Parel BDD to ensure her win. She asserted that she was confident of winnning votes in her ward. She has no strong competitors as the BJP had not fielded a candidate in this ward, but its ally RPI(A) had. However, the nomination of the RPI (A) candidate was rejected. The MNS candidate in the ward is Bunty Mashilkar
"Bunty Mashilkar does not have a strong grip in the area and we expect it to be a one-sided win for Ambekar." says Sanket Sawant, a voter
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