Joined by a huge crowd, Mumbai Congress chief files nomination for LS polls

Mumbai, April 30 Leading a massive procession of supporters, party activists, and common people, Mumbai Congress President Prof Varsha Gaikwad on Tuesday filed her nominations for the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency.

She was joined by ex-MP Priya Dutt, top city and state party leaders and thousands of supporters plus activists of the Congress, the Shiv Sena-UBT, and the Nationalist Congress Party-SP at the Mumbai Suburban District Collectorate office.

Earlier, Gaikwad, whose father, the late Eknath Gaikwad, was also elected twice to parliament from Mumbai, prayed at the famed Siddhivinayak Ganesh Temple at Prabhadevi before starting for the MSD Collectorate in Bandra.

"Elections are the festival of democracy… I am truly overwhelmed to see the crowds, my supporters, party workers, friends and family members who accompanied me for the nomination filing," she said.

She is pitted against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate and ace lawyer, Ujjwal Nikam, amid the likelihood of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi also fielding its nominee.

In the past few days, Gaikwad has visited top alliance leaders including SS-UBT President and former CM Uddhav Thackeray, ex-Congress MP Priya Dutt and NCP leaders.

She filed her nomination a day after internal pressures built up in the party for fielding a Muslim candidate from at least one seat in the state, and the central party high command is expected to decide on the matter by the weekend.

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