Raj Babbar, Mohammad Azharuddin seek to shift base, pitch for Congress LS seats from Mumbai

MUMBAI: Actor and Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar and Telangana Congress working president and former Indian skipper, Mohammad Azharuddin, are keen to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Mumbai. Babbar was elected to the LS from Agra in 2009 but he lost for former army chief V K Singh in the 2014 polls from Ghaziabad. It’s quite surprising that Congress heads of two states, instead of contesting from their own states, have expressed a desire to contest from Mumbai.

With the elections a few months away, senior Congress leaders expect that party president Rahul Gandhi will step in to end groupism in the Mumbai unit. A few months after Sanjay Nirupam took charge of the city unit, some leaders like Milind Deora, Kripa Shankar Singh and Naseem Khan urged Gandhi to remove him, but another group favoured him. “Gandhi must come out openly and tell rival factions to work unitedly for defeating BJP,’’ a senior Congress leader said.

Nirupam confirmed that Babbar and Azharuddin were interested in contesting from Mumbai. “Azharuddin spoke to me about his desire. It is for the Congress leadership to take a decision," Nirupam said. He said that in the 2014 LS polls, Congress was unable to secure even one out of six seats here, but in the ensuing polls, the situation will be completely different in view of the downfall of the Modi government and its failure on all fronts. “Our performance will be impressive," Nirupam said.

Nirupam, who lost to BJP’s Gopal Shetty from North Mumbai by a huge margin, may shift to North-West, from where the late Gurudas Kamat had been contesting the LS polls for long. In 2014, Kamat lost to Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar. Senior Congress leader Priya Dutt, who lost to BJP’s Poonam Mahajan from North-Central, may not contest this time. A senior Congress leader said Dutt had informed Gandhi about her inability to contest. If she does not contest, former city unit president Kripa Shankar Singh, and former ministers Naseem Khan and Baba Siddiqui will seek nominations. From Mumbai North-Central, where Sena’s Rahul Shewale defeated Congress’s Eknath Gaikwad, former Rajya Sabha member Bhalchandra Mungekar and RS MP Hussain Dalwai are top contenders, along with Gaikwad’s daughter, Varsha, a legislator from Dharavi.

In South Mumbai, Congress is set to retain Deora, who lost to Sena’s Arvind Sawant in 2014. “I have been serving South Mumbai since 2004 and will continue to do so whether or not I am MP," Deora said. Significantly, Congress has suddenly staked claim for North-East, from where BJP’s Kirit Somaiyya defeated NCP’s Sanjay Dina Patil. Congress leaders Charan Singh Sapra and Virendra Bakshi urged the party leadership to claim the seat due to “dwindling support” to NCP in the area. “We suggested the Congress exchange the NorthCentral seat with North Mumbai, where NCP has a better chance,’’ a senior Congress leader said.