Monday, October 26, 2009

The magic of the secular leader of the masses continues – Ganesh Naik

For a leader who proved his magic for nearly four decades, assembly elections 2009 seemed to be the biggest battle for Ganesh Naik. His opponents tried everything possible to defeat Ganesh Naik in the assembly elections but the results have shown that the magic of the secular leader of the masses continues – Ganesh Naik has proven again that he is the undisputed badshah of Navi Mumbai politics.

In the assembly elections 2009, wherever one visited either Belapur or Airoli constituencies, you were sure to have complicated “who will undercut who” calculations flung at you. In the last three months of election campaigning the BJP-Shiv Sena continuously talked about the change mantra that was all set to conquer Navi Mumbai while the united strength of Congress rebels were over confident of toppling the dynastic rule of the Naik family. These cards could have worked in some other constituency, not in Navi Mumbai. Navi Mumbai is one place where the caste-religion arithmetic or the life force of Marathi heartland politics, change mantra or even dynastic rule never works. If anything works – it is only Ganesh Naik. Even after four decades, the magic of Ganesh Naik is such that no matter wherever Ganesh Naik goes in Navi Mumbai, the crowd gathered in thousands. In return of their love and admiration, Ganesh Naik is always sure to give his followers, supporters and well wishers a wholesome smile, a familiar nod, a wave of hand, an eye to eye connect or even a quick word coming their way. And each goes back gratified. It’s been four decades that Ganesh Naik has been enjoying this support of Navi Mumbai.

As one hears residents across the city and communities speak about Ganesh Naik, the results of Belapur and Airoli constituencies where Ganesh Naik and his son Sandeep Naik were contesting seems to be a foregone conclusion that we had reported way back on September 5th 2009. For those who were attacking Ganesh Naik and Sandeep Naik’s candidature for promoting “dynastic rule” – the voters have spelt their verdict. Voters in Navi Mumbai have proven that they are like stubborn children, fiercely attached to the first family of Navi Mumbai – the Naik family. This is primarily because Ganesh Naik has continuously engaged in promoting secularism & brotherhood in Navi Mumbai. The peace and communal harmony in Navi Mumbai when neighboring cities burnt during the Mumbai riots was evidence of this.

And it isn’t just the people’s love and support that has given Ganesh Naik a victory in these elections but his leadership is widely accepted across grass root Congress workers and even some Shiv Sena leaders in Navi Mumbai. The results are forcing even critics to admit that the work done by the Naik family in presenting the secular, vibrant and flamboyant image of Navi Mumbai at all levels is incomparable. That’s why no matter how much opponents try to malign Ganesh Naik’s image, but Navi Mumbai continues to have great respect & affection for the city real son Ganesh Naik. People of Navi Mumbai know that Ganesh Naik has invested in making a secular Navi Mumbai at the cost of political loss.

In democracy the stature you reach in politics is written by the people. And the people of Navi Mumbai have given their verdict by voting the Naik family to power both at Delhi and in Maharashtra – the people’s verdict once again proves that Ganesh Naik continues to be the undisputed badshah of Navi Mumbai politics.

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