Slumdog Millionaire number Jai Ho may have become the theme song for the Congress’ electioneering, but the theme of Dharavi as an election issue was sniffed out by the Shiv Sena as far back as 2007, when the party began to stage vocal protests against the Rs 15,000-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project.

For all the Marathi manoos rhetoric, the Shiv Sena in 2007-08 assumed leadership of a campaign set to benefit the mostly migrant population of what is loosely called Asia’s largest slum - such was the appeal of the campaign that could garner support for the Sena in Mumbai’s other slums too, traditionally a Congress stronghold.

“Uddhav Thackeray came three times to Dharavi to address the people,” says Baburao Mane, a former Sena legislator from Dharavi and among the main players in the opposition to the redevelopment project in its current form.

The South Central constituency comprises large tracts of slum lands in Mahim, Wadala and Antop Hill as well as the middle-class areas of Anushakti Nagar, King’s Circle, Matunga and Chembur, but the most prominent issue for both top candidates - sitting MP Eknath Gaikwad (Congress) and Shiv Sena legislator from Mahim, Suresh Gambhir - remains Dharavi.

The 80,000-odd families in Dharavi should, according to the Shiv Sena, get 400 sq ft flats free, instead of the 300 sq ft homes promised by the project; the right to “self-redevelopment” for Kumbharwada and Koliwada; free industrial galas for the recycling, scrap, leather goods, tailoring, pottery, zari embroidery, manufacturing accessories and foodstuff manufacturing units.

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