Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
Lodha to SoBo hsg societies: If you don’t vote for Modi, it’ll be like a sin
“If you’re upset with me for whatever reason, remove me from my seat in the Vidhan Sabha elections. Just don’t be upset with PM Modi,” cabinet minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha appealed to residents of south Mumbai housing societies on Friday evening.
The BJP leader and billionaire businessman was on a campaign trail at Girgaon, Tardeo and Napean Sea Road, where he appealed to the residents to vote for his party on May 20.
Lodha also extended a helping hand to Mahayuti’s Shiv Sena candidate Yamini Jadhav, fielded for Mumbai South seat.
Sitting in front of a few rows of chairs in the common area of the Kailash Nagar housing society in Tardeo, a few people watching from their chawl-style corridors overhead, Lodha began each interaction with a little treatise to vote for the BJP, by calling onto the mantle of PM Narendra Modi. “If you don’t vote for Modi, it’ll be as good as a sin,” said Lodha to the residents. Around 60 to 80 of them started raising the BJP’s slogan of “ab ki baar, charso par.”
Lodha had been invited by the housing society themselves, said Bharat Shah, a member of the managing committee of the housing society. “All of the residents here have it in our hearts and minds to vote for the BJP. There is no competition,” he said. A resident, Aditi Sawal, was a case in point. “We’re voting for the BJP’s ideology and the work PM has done in the past ten years.”
But when it came towards the end of the 15-20 minute interaction, when Lodha asked those in assembly about the issues they were facing, she brought up the dwindling number of BEST buses over the past decade.
“We have to wait for over an
hour to catch a bus. Not all of us have private vehicles,” she said.
These were, however, not issues that would sway them while voting in the national elections. In the other stops on his campaign trail, similar issues pertaining to the municipality were brought up. While he sat in
the small ground-floor lobby of the Mehta Heights building in Girgaon to an audience of around 40, complaints were raised about parking and encroachments in the small lanes which lead to their building, making commuting difficult. One resident demanded an escalator at Charni Road station.
At his second stop at Warden Court Society in Gowalia Tank, a toilet being constructed near their building was a big talking point, with all of the residents objecting to it for fears of the eventual stench. Parking issues were brought up again, while others wanted the nearby kabutar khana gone.
“This was just an opportunity to raise our issues with him because Lodha is our MLA. My mind is made up to vote for the BJP,” said Shweta Javed, taking Lodha’s autograph on the request of her 9-year-old son because “he sees Lodha buildings and his face everywhere.”
In response to these issues raised, Lodha and his team on the ground took note of the issues and contact details of the complainants, giving his phone number - which as a public servant, is in the public domain and asking them to drop them a message in a month.