The Anushakti Nagar assembly constituency (Number 172) covering localities like Cheeta Camp, Trombay, Deonar, Mankhurd, and Maharashtra Nagar, in many ways, resembles neighbouring Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar. The constituency has a large number of Muslim voters and a majority of the population lives in slums. Anushakti Nagar, however, also has many middle-class voters, including government staff and scientists who live in the leafy housing colonies. There are high-rise residential buildings and the area has one of India's premier nuclear research establishments, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
In the 2019 Vidhansabha elections, Nawab Malik of the Nationalist Congress Party won the seat with 65,217 votes, defeating his rival from the undivided Shiv Sena, Tukaram Kate, who received 52,466 votes. Kate had won the seat in 2014, trouncing Malik who had clinched the seat in 2009. According to news reports, Malik wants to contest this time from Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar and leave the Anushakti Nagar constituency to his daughter Sana Malik, who plans to debut in electoral politics.
Malik is under investigation for money laundering by the Enforcement Directorate. He had denied the charges and is currently on bail. There are reports that Malik's plans to enter the electoral arena in Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar is reported to have flustered the Samajwadi Party whose Abu Asim Azmi, the three-time Member of the Legislative Assembly, is looking for a fourth term. "There are indications that the Samajwadi Party will retaliate by fielding a candidate in Anushakti Nagar. This could be to put pressure on Malik to leave the Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar seat to the Samajwadi Party,' said Shaikh Fayyaz Alam of the Govandi Citizens Welfare Forum, an association based in Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar.
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The Samajwadi Party and NCP will court the Muslim voters estimated to be a third of the electorate. Anushakti Nagar, with around 247,000 voters in 2019, is part of the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency. Many localities like Cheeta Camp are located on reclaimed low-lying former marshland and flooding is frequent during the monsoons. The area has inadequate road infrastructure, traffic congestion, poor sanitation, and unreliable public transportation. The proliferation and vertical growth of slums have increased crowding. Except for the government housing colonies, the area has few recreational areas. The recent MLA Report Card released by the Praja Foundation ranked Malik at the bottom of the list of legislators from the city, with a score of 18.
A large part of the locality, including the BARC staff residential area, is unaffected by the local elections. The area is managed by the Directorate of Construction Services and Estate Management, an agency run by the Department of Atomic Energy. "We do not depend on the development services of the municipal corporation or the MLA. We are not affected by the elections," said an Anushakti Nagar Residents Welfare Association member.
Their neighbours, however, have a large stake in who wins the elections. Residents said that Malik has helped to improve stormwater drainage by deepening the nullahs and drains. Rehan Khan, a tax accountant and a resident of Cheeta Camp, said many of the festering issues in the area, like the badly maintained burial grounds and the crematorium have been repaired. "The municipal hospital was functioning well until an assault on medical staff scared away the doctors. There is no Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or ICUs at the hospital and families have to travel to the Sion Hospital for medical care. The only recreational area has been taken away to construct the Mankhurd Metro depot (for Dahisar-Mankhurd Metro 2 Line)," said Khan.
Kate, Malik's main rival in 2019, has reportedly not visited the constituency in the last five years. Kate said he is not planning to contest from the seat this time and will shift to the neighbouring Chembur seat. He declined to give his reasons for the decision. "I will talk about it once the parties start announcing their candidates," said Kate.
However, Malik's daughter, Sana, is a familiar face in the constituency, visiting the area when her father was in jail. "In my absence, Sana was looking after the constituency. People are demanding that she should represent them," said Malik who is now with Ajit Pawar's NCP.
Malik, who was arrested in 2022, was granted bail on medical grounds in July this year. He did not comment on the case, explaining that the matter was sub-judice. About the reports of his planning to shift to Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar, Malik said, "People in Shivaji Nagar want a change, but I will leave it to my party to decide whether I should contest from there," he said.
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Malik said that when he took charge as the area's MLA, many localities faced a shortage of drinking water. "That issue has been resolved with my intervention. I have demanded the extension of Metro Line 2 till Cheeta Camp and Trombay. The Shatabdi Hospital, which was dilapidated, has been renovated and will be inaugurated in a few months. It will have a medical college, the only one between Navi Mumbai and Sion," said Malik who attributed his poor rankings in the Praja Report to the fact that he was in custody and could not attend the assembly sessions. "Speaking on the floor of the house is different from the work done in the constituency. Unfortunately, the report is drawn up after counting attendance and speeches in the assembly," Malik added.
Key issues
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Absence of recreational areas. The only public recreational area is now the site of a Metro crashed
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Inadequate medical facilities. The closest large public medical centre is at Sion, more than 10 km away
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Encroachments on roads
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Vertical growth of slums which is adding to the congestion
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Low-lying areas get flooded during the rains
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The road link across the railway line is a subway which floods during heavy rains. There are plans for a bridge.
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There are enough schools, but not enough libraries or study centres for students