There was excitement on Wednesday night among residents of Sambhaji Nagar-a slum pocket off the western express highway in Vile Parle that is up for rehabilitation to pave the way for the airport expansion project. The buzz was around rehabilitation of the slum dwellers displaced by the project and who will deliver their poll promise better, Mahesh Jethmalani, the BJP candidate or sitting MP Priya Dutt in the traditionally pro-Congress seat of Mumbai North-Central. The talks of Sambhaji Nagar residents mainly centered on the possible “swing” in this year’s poll results in favour of BJP, whose cadres are sparing no efforts to mobilise voters citing Priya Dutt’s inefficiency in taking care of major issues that affect the general populace of the constituency.

And at the heart of all issues in the constituency of about 18 lakh voters, lies the issue of slum rehabilitation of about 85,000 families living on 276 acres of airport land, who have been resisting resettlement to areas such as Mankhurd and Dahisar and constitute anywhere between 10 to 15 per cent votes.

On being questioned about their strategies to tackle the issue of rehabilitation from airport land, both parties say that they would ensure that project affected people (PAP) are not resettled on the outskirts and instead are shifted to nearby areas, which will not affect their livelihoods.

“We are not against airport expansion, but not at the cost of dislocating more than 80,000 families. There is about 200 acres of government land near Sahar and a small portion of that land can be used to rehabilitate them,” said Mahesh Jethmalani. Similarly the Congress says that in the first phase of rehabilitation, which will happen by November, the families would be given 300 square feet accommodation and townships, with even temples and mosques being built for them.

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