Mumbai North West LS constituency to see four-cornered contest

, Mar 16: The Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency is set to witness an interesting four-cornered battle between sitting Congress MP

, Shiv Sena leader Gajanan Kirtikar, AAP's

and movie director Mahesh Manjrekar from MNS.

Manjrekar's presence is widely being seen by political observers as dampening Kirtikar's chances, though the Sena leader has put up a brave face and continued his campaign, telling voters that a split in anti-Congress votes would eventually benefit the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance.

In 2009, Gurudas Kamat had won Mumbai North West by more than 38,000 votes, after a with multi cornered contest.

However, with Aam Aadmi Party in the fray this time, besides an Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's (MNS) candidate like Mahesh Manjrekar, political observers have said that the final result would be unpredictable.

With more than 1.6 million voters, Mumbai North West is home to a predominantly Marathi and Gujarati population, along with North Indians, Muslims and Dalits.

The sprawling constituency comprises elite areas of Juhu and Vile Parle West, which is home to television personalities and Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan.

After the constituency's delimitation in 2009, Vile Parle East, Santacruz, Bandra and Khar which were part of Mumbai North West were incorporated in the neighboring Mumbai North Central constituency, while Jogeshwari and Goregaon were included in Mumbai North West.

The constituency has always been a Congress stronghold, except in 1977 and 1980, when the Janata Party wave had swept the country and the seat was represented by eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani on a Janata Party ticket first and later on a BJP ticket.

PTI