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

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.