Suryakant Shinge's campaign covers several important areas of the constituency

29 April 2009: Apart from taking the new politics of the People's Candidate and Direct democracy to the people, the election agent and the activists had to do a lot of running around on Saturday to fulfill the formalities imposed by the Election Commission - running around to get police permission for meetings, getting permission for tempo for the campaign, trying to get microphone permission, etc. All this takes a significant toll on the campaign of candidates who are not backed by the rich and the powerful.

Dockyard Labour Colony, Abhyudaya Nagar and Chatai Chawl
In the evening of Saturday, 18th April, the campaign team went to the Dockyard Labour colony. The Dockyard Labour Colony had 14 buildings each having four to five floors. At the entrance itself, some workers told us about the composition of people staying in the colony. Many were from North India and a good number were Muslims. The activists had come prepared with the Hindi manifesto copies as more people read Hindi here than Marathi. The big team of activists covered all 14 buildings well before the campaign ending time eaving some time to explore other areas around.

The activists visited the Chatai chawl on the opposite side of the Dockyand colony. In the chawl square there was a lot of hustle & bustle and the loudspeaker was blaring as a meeting on Dr. Ambedkar Jayanti was due to begin. People, including youth, readily nodded to the elaboration of idea of people's candidate by Shri Shinge. After talking to people there and distributing the manifestos, some buildings of the higher income people were also covered as there was time remaining before the Campaign period ended.

Parel Village, Bhoiwada and BEST Colony
On Sunday the campaign trail started early. By 10 AM, a large group of activists reached the Parel Village area. Parel Village is a urban village with tiny pucca dwellings, open drains and narrow lanes. There are also a few trees, which gave the place a touch of the village. Being Sunday morning, women were busy washing clothes outside. The cramped nature of the place hit home to the activists when they peeped in some of the homes to talk to the people. Children were made to sit on a cot since the house was being cleaned. The children could not be allowed to play outside since clothes were being washed outside! There was no place for them to play on a Sunday morning. Such is life of working people in Mumbai.

The people were very friendly though. Some of the garment workers living there knew Suryakant and came out to greet the campaigners. They joined the procession and guided the campaign activists to various houses and areas. They introduced the candidate to many people there. One single problem that was top-most in the minds of the people was the high food prices. They mocked at the propaganda of the government that inflation was down to zero, when the prices of the essentials were soaring. Several people of the village engaged the activists on this topic to see how Suryakant could do to alleviate the problem. They were very happy to hear the various proposals of universal PDS, cutting out profiteering by the middlemen by nationalization of wholesale and foreign trade, etc.

After making a full round of the village, they accompanied the activists for campaigning in the area around. Six buildings of the BEST workers were right behind the village. Activists split and efficiently covered all the building. Workers readily agreed with the line of the People's candidate and promised to support Suryakant by voting for him.

After completing the BEST quarters, the activists marched out in the busy Bhoiwada market area and the slum colony behind. A group of youth sitting in the common area received the manifesto well. They talked to the candidate and readily agreed that the elected representatives must be under the control of the people. Before concluding the first half of the day's campaign, the activists made a round of the Christian section of the Parel Village and talked to the people. Once again the idea of people's candidate struck a cord with the women there.

By half past one, the activists were heading towards Currey road to make a lunch stop and plan the activities for the next several days.

Procession in the Working class areas of Central Mumbai
After the planning meeting in the afternoon where the program for the coming week was decided, a truck was decorated with banners of the candidate, displaying his election symbol and the facsimile of the Affidavit on a 100 Rupee Stamp paper. The truck was loaded with campaign material in Hindi and Marathi and the procession marched off to N M Joshi road area (Delisle road) distributing the manifesto to the people hanging around on the road side.

The procession marched into a large building having several hundred flats, called Panchganga. Here, residents already knew Suryakant as it is close to his office area. Many people shook hands and congratulated Suryakant for standing in the election as People's candidate. Several village communities are housed in this building as 'Gramasth Mandals', providing shelter to people of their village. Several gramasth mandals took keen interest in the new politics that Suryakant represented.

Deen Building was another building that the marchers went in. It is a old 3-storied building with a long courtyard in the middle. While Suryakant explained why he was standing for election, others went up the stairs on both sides to distribute the manifestos door to door.

Next the campaign march went through the BDD area in N M Joshi marg. A large number of manifestos were distributed in the streets and several street corner meeting were held. People smiled to show their agreement with what Suryakant had to say.

The entire troop got on to the tempo and was transported to Worli BDD chawls. They were joined by some activists of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI). Once again the distribution of manfestos was done on road and some selected Chawl buildings. In one of the chawls, a well-wisher family put the vijay teeka on Suryakant's forehead to wish him success.

Gopal Nagar Slum
Finally the marchers went in the Century textile mill area. The mill is now closed and a few mill workers remembered Suryakant and his comrades who used to come in support of the workers when they were agitating against the closure. The marchers were guided by the SUCI comrades into the narrow lanes of Gopal Nagar slum which is situated behind the Century mill area. The roads are so narrow that twice the route had to be changed to accommodate the Shri Ayyappa procession which was also taking place there.

Although the activists had been walking since the morning in different areas, the positive and encouraging response from people and supporters kept their enthusiasm high right to the end of the long campaign day on Sunday. The contribution of the activists of more than a dozen organisations who had developed the People's Charter, which Shri Shinge is committed to implement if elected, has been very significant. Apart from them, many communists have been assisting the campaign too. They are very angry with their leadership for supporting the "third front" candidate and not an active communist and union leader like Shri Shinge and feel that they must contribute to Suryakant's campaign, although unofficially.