Sena’s Mum South nominee relies on PM Modi’s appeal

Mumbai: It is around 10 am. Shiv Sena’s LS poll candidate from Mumbai South, Byculla MLA Yamini Jadhav, rushes down from her home in Mazgaon’s Tadwadi with women party workers and jumps into her SUV to start her day of campaigning. Her first stop is the famous Gol Deval temple. Right through the 20-min journey, Jadhav is on the phone, giving instructions to party workers and fixing the time for her next meetings. At the temple, hundreds of Mahayuti workers greet her. Among them is BJP functionary Atul Shah who helps her navigate through crowds as she enters the temple to offer prayers. Jadhav is banking on the ground support of BJP and her own network of party workers, but more than anything else, she is banking on the Modi factor to help her sail through. “I’m going to the people with my work and performance, the performance of Shinde govt and the Modi govt. People will vote for development, and not just for sympathy and emotion. People will choose development over sympathy. I’m only a technical candidate and the real face of LS polls is PM Modi. People are going to vote for Modi, he has brought India into the top three economies. Even the incumbent MP (Arvind Sawant of UBT Sena, whom she is pitted against) got elected only due to the Modi factor,” Jadhav says. Her ‘rath’ too has a massive photo of PM Modi on it, surrounded by photos of late Balasaheb Thackeray, Anand Dighe and other Mahayuti leaders like CM Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.As she comes out of the temple, firecrackers are burst, the dhol band plays and loudspeakers announce her arrival. She climbs on to the ‘rath’, followed by dozens of workers donning scarfs and placards of Mahayuti parties including NCP and RPI-A. But BJP workers outnumber them. Jadhav’s typical campaign day starts early with review meets. Then she covers as much ground as she can on the ‘rath’ or on padyatras and ends the day with review meets again. “BJP has done a lot of groundwork for me. Even support from MNS is more than expected. We are all working as a unit to get Modiji elected as PM,” she says. Meanwhile, CM Shinde on Wednesday attended the lecture ‘Bharat Kal Aaj Aur Kal’ by Acharya Pravar Shrimat Nayapadmasagar Surishwar Maharaj Sahebji, a guru of the Jain community and interacted with Jain community members. He appealed to the community to vote for Mahayuti candidate.