Almost 70 km away from his Byculla constituency, lodged inside Taloja prison on serious charges of eliminating a Shiv Sena corporator and demanding protection money from a city builder, Arun Gulab Gawli, 56, is reading a thick sheaf of Marathi, Hindi and English newspapers more closely than ever. Sitting inside the ‘and a cell’ of the prison on the outskirts of Mumbai, the gangster-turned-politician has little time to relax as he finetunes campaign strategies to ensure that he’s re-elected in the upcoming Assembly elections.

His daughter Geeta, a corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, and his wife Asha have started a vigorous door-to-door campaign. But the crowds they attract are significantly smaller than in 2004, when ‘Daddy’, as Gawli is addressed, would wave at thousands-strong crowds as he drove through the decrepit chawl areas of Agripada, Chinchpokli and Byculla in an open-top vehicle, spotless white kurta and Gandhi cap in place.

The somewhat milder response to ‘Mummy’ Asha is perhaps why the one-time kabaddi champion is taking no chances. Gawli is believed to have given a lucid work plan to all his close confidantes and to Geeta. What’s more, soon after filing his nomination, when Gawli arrived at the J J Hospital in Byculla for a routine medial check-up on September 24, he spent considerable time in a huddle with Geeta and Asha in the prisoners’ ward of the government hospital, apparently discussing the finer points of the his campaign.

“Our campaign is certainly weaker this time as daddy is not here,” said Geeta, speaking to The Indian Express. “But the work done by him for the constituency’s people will speak for itself. I met him in hospital a couple of days after filing the nomination and we discussed strategies.”

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