Sena vs Sena, Piyush Goyal's maiden bid: Mumbai gears up for keen contests on May 20

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is BJP's candidate from Mumbai North seat.

Mumbai is all set to vote in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha election on May 20.

Of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, Mumbai accounts for six namely Mumbai North, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South and Mumbai South Central.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won the Mumbai North, Mumbai North East and Mumbai North Central seats. The remaining three were won by the Shiv Sena.

However, the Sena has now split into Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde-led and Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) groups; and the Nationalist Congress Party has Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar factions.

This time Maharashtra is witnessing a close contest between the Mahayuti comprising BJP, Shiv Sena, and Nationalist Congress Party and the Maha Vikas Aghadi consisting of Indian National Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (SP).

Here are the key constituencies to watch out for in Mumbai.

Mumbai North: Union Minister Piyush Goyal’s candidature was announced by the BJP in its second list of 72 candidates. Goyal, who is making his poll debut, is up against the Congress candidate Bhushan Patil. Senior BJP leader Gopal Shetty won from Mumbai North in 2014 and 2019.

Mumbai South: Two-time MP and UBT Sena leader Arvind Sawant is aiming for a hat- trick as he faces Shiv Sena’s Byculla MLA Yamini Yashwant Jadhav here. While Sawant relies on vocal representation in Parliament, where he raised various national issues, Jadhav highlights the good governance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Sawant comfortably retained his seat with a victory margin of nearly a lakh votes against former Congress leader Milind Deora for the second time. This seat comprises Hindu strongholds such as Kalbadevi and Bhuleshwar juxtaposed against densely populated Muslim neighbourhoods such as Bhindi Bazaar, Pydhonie, and Masjid Bunder.

Mumbai north-central: This seat will witness a battle between first-time Lok Sabha candidates fielded by the BJP and Congress. The Congress fielded its Mumbai unit chief, Varsha Gaikwad, while the BJP nominated senior criminal lawyer Ujjwal Nikam as its candidate. Nikam has handled the country's several high-profile cases, including 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. Meanwhile, Gaikwad (49), a four-time MLA and former minister, is a prominent Dalit leader in the city. In 2019, BJP's Poonam Mahajan defeated Congress leader Priya Dutt by a margin of more than 1.30 lakh votes. Besides Gaikwad and Nikam, 25 other candidates, including Advocate Ramzan Choudhary of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s Satish Belamkar and actor Ajaz Khan are in the fray.