Mumbai South Central is a constituency that includes areas in Mumbai such as Chembur, Anushakti Nagar, Dharavi (SC), Sion Koliwada, Wadala, and Mahim assembly constituencies. This is a diverse constituency, with a high population density.
Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest informal settlements is home to an estimated one million people and is a known hub for recycling, leather, and pottery mirco-industries. Chembur, which used to be mostly industrial land with the presence of BARC and RCF, is rapidly transforming into a prime location for real-estate developers, building middle income and luxurious high rises in the area. Anushakti Nagar, a self-contained, planned neighbourhood, is composed of employees of Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India in Mumbai community with a population of about 45,000.
The constituency was formed before 1952. The current incumbent MP is Rahul Ramesh Shewale from Shiv Sena. It is one of the biggest in the Mumbai Metropolitan Area, and is completely urbanised.
Constituency map
At a glance – Mumbai South Central constituency
| Constituency Name | Mumbai South Central |
| Number of voters | 13,88,390 (as per 2009 election commission data) |
| Male voters | 7,52,639 |
| Female voters | 6,35,660 |
Find your polling booth
Use your EPIC number in the voter id cards to find the booth information here.
Read more: Lok Sabha elections 2024: Kalyan constituency — Know your constituency and candidates
Key candidates contesting in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024
Read more about the incumbent MP, Rahul Shewale, here.
| Candidates for 2024 |
| Rahul Ramesh Shewale, 51 Shiv Sena Education: Diploma In Civil Engineering Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: Rs. 3 Crores+ Total liabilities: Rs. 4 Crore+ Click here for affidavit |
| Anil Yeshwant Desai, 66 Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) Education: Graduate Professional Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: Rs. 22 Crore+ Total liabilities: 2 Crore+ Click here for affidavit |
| Abul Hasan Ali Hasan Khan, 53 Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi Education: 12th Pass Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: Rs. 27 Crore+ Total liabilities: Rs. 5 Crore+ Click here for affidavit |
| Adv Mahendra Tulshiram Bhingardive, 47 Right to Recall Party Education: Graduate professional Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: Rs. 1 Crore+ Total liabilities: 6 Lakhs+ Click here for affidavit |
| Adv Santosh Punjiram Sanjkar, 48 Independent Education: Post Graduate Pending criminal cases: 4 Total assets: Rs. 16 Lakhs+ Total liabilities: 0 Click here for affidavit |
| Akash Laxman Kharatmal, 62 Independent Education: 5th Pass Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: Rs. 6 Lakhs+ Total liabilities: Click here for affidavit |
| Ashwini Kumar Pathak, 39 Independent Education: Graduate Professional Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: Rs. 12 Lacs+ Total liabilities: 0 Click here for affidavit |
| Deepak M Chaugule, 36 Bahujan Republican Socialist Party Education: Post Graduate Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: 15 Lakhs+ Total liabilities: 0 Click here for affidavit |
| Dr Arjun Mahadeo Murudkar, 77 Bharatheeya Jawan Kisan Party Education: Doctorate Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: 64.92 lakhs+ Total liabilities: 20 lakhs+ Click here for affidavit |
| Ishwar Vilas Tathawade, 47 Rashtriya Mahaswaraj Bhumi Party Education: Graduate Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: 1 lakh+ Total liabilities: 0 Click here for affidavit |
| Jahid Ali Nasir Ahmed Shaikh, 37 Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) Education: 8th Pass Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: 27 Lakh+ Total liabilities: 0 Click here for affidavit |
| Karam Hussain Kitabullah Khan, 50 Peace Party Education: 8th pass Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: 1 Crore+ Total liabilities: 0 Click here for affidavit |
| Saeed Choudhary, 49 Social Democratic Party Of India Education: 8th pass Pending criminal cases: 5 Total assets: Rs. 36 Lakhs+ Total liabilities: Rs. 31 Thousand+ Click here for affidavit |
| Vidhyasagar Alias Suresh Bhimrao Vidhyagar, 49 Bahujan Samaj Party Education: Graduate Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: Rs. 78 Lakhs+ Total liabilities: Rs. 28 Lakhs+ Click here for affidavit |
| Vivek Yeshwant Patil, 61 Independent Education: Government Commercial Diploma Pending criminal cases: 0 Total assets: Rs. 10 Crore+ Total liabilities: Rs. 37 Lakhs+ Click here for affidavit |
Additional information
Out of 41 applications for candidature, 18 were rejected due to various reasons. A total of 23 were accepted and 15 are finally contesting in the Mumbai South Central constituency. Incumbent MP Rahul Shewale is also contesting. Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balsaheb Thackeray) has fielded senior leader Anil Desai against Shewale, who went with Eknath Shinde when the internal rebellion took place. Four of these candidates are independents.
Past election results
| 2019 | Candidate Name | Party | Votes | Percentage |
| 1 | Rahul Ramesh Shewale | SHS | 4,23,743 | 54.21% |
| 2 | Eknath M. Gaikwad | INC | 2,72,393 | 34.85% |
| 3 | Bhosale Sanjay Sushil | VBA | 63,256 | 8.09% |
| 4 | Ahmed Shakil Sagir Ahmd Shaikh | BSP | 8623 | 1.1% |
| 5 | Godfrey Noble | DMSK | 2198 | 0.28% |
| 2014 | Candidate | Party | Votes | Percentage |
| 1 | Rahul Ramesh Shewale | SHS | 3,80,747 | 50.19% |
| 2 | Eknath M. Gaikwad | INC | 2,42,701 | 31.99% |
| 3 | Aditya Rajan Shirodkar | MNS | 73,026 | 9.63% |
| 4 | Sundar Balakrishnan | AAAP | 27,672 | 3.65 % |
| 5 | Adv Ayyar Ganesh | BSP | 14,754 | 1.94% |
Read more: General Elections 2024: Voter awareness and accurate registration crucial
Key issues in Mumbai South Central constituency
In the last few years, Mumbai South Central, has seen a number of redevelopment projects among slum areas and low income neighbourhoods. These are usually carried out by private developers contracted by the government with specific compensatory plans and eligibility criteria for beneficiaries.
Redevelopment however has been a contentious issue, sparking protests or dissatisfaction among those living in these sites, given profit motives of developers, and a lack of adequate consultation carried out with residents.
As far back as 1981, Dharavi’s redevelopment had long captured the imaginations of governments and private builders over the years, with several plans to redevelop the buildings, provide free housing for residents, and clearing up space for infrastructure building, coming up over the years. Yet, 43 years later, none of these projects have come to fruition.
In 2004 The Maharashtra government launched the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP), running with a development plan by luxury architect Mukesh Mehta. The attempt was foiled by large scale protests from Dharavi residents coupled with the financial crisis of 2008.
In September of 2022, Adani Group won the government’s latest bid for Dharavi’s redevelopment– which will be carried out via a Special Purpose Vehicle ( Adani having 80% stake, leaving the remaining 20% with the government).
However, in December of 2023, a protest was held by residents of Dharavi, organised by Shiv Sena and other opposition parties, to express dissent towards the Rs 23,000 crore redevelopment project.
According to reports, residents fear that many local businesses which run partially in residential spaces, will suffer due to the project. They also worry that several lakh residents could be disregarded as they live on upper floors in the informal settlement.
Read more: Explainer: Dharavi redevelopment — What lies ahead
Other redevelopment projects in Mumbai South Central
Despite the promises of mobility and comfort that redevelopment carries, the process can be debilitating in itself, as one can see in other projects that are going on in Mumbai south central region.
Take Wadala’s Azad Nagar, where over 200 residents living in chawls protested in 2019, as they were not paid agreed rental compensation by RNA, a developer in charge of re-developing the chawls of more than 300 displaced families. In 2019, these families gathered at the 8.3 acre plot where their homes once stood, protesting the 4 year long delay in the plot’s development by the builder.
In Sion Koliwada, re-development of Sindhi refugee quarters has been approved by the Maharashtra Government. These quarters were first occupied by Punjabi, Sikh, and Sindhi migrants who were displaced during partition, along with their descendants. The BMC even demolished many of these buildings in 2020, displacing many families adding to those who had already left to other parts of town, renting their allocated unit out.
The redevelopment will be carried out by MHADA and a private redevelopment company, with the aim of developing the area like the BDD (Bombay Development Department) chawls. It will be important to see how the redevelopment takes place, whether it will be carried out in consultation with those who will occupy these buildings.
Apart from low income housing, privatisation of transport has been on the rise.
Last year protests were held in Wadala bus depot by trade unions to prevent bus systems from being handed over to private companies. In 2022, BEST employees at the Pratiksha Nagar bus depot in Sion were transferred at one gland in their place, drivers hired to maintain a private fleet of buses were given charge of the bus stop.
This is part of a larger trend across the city, whereby a number of public buses have reduced in their fleet size, many routes have been discontinued, leaving a number of BEST employees out of work. While the operation of BEST doesn’t directly come under the jurisdiction of the Lok Sabha elected representative, the MP could play an important role in driving conversations, problematising, and adding pressure to other state bodies on the matter of privatisation of public services in their constituency.
Mumbai South Central candidates in the news
Rahul Ramesh Shewale
In March of this year, Shewale led a proposal to to change the names of eight railway stations in Mumbai in the place of their English counterparts, in an attempt to ‘decolonise’ the nomenclature of the city. The Mumbai Central station will be renamed as the Nana Jagannath Shankarsheth station. Curry Road will be renamed as Lalbaug, Sandhurst Road as Dongri, Marine Lines as Mumbadevi and Charni Road as Girgaon.
Historians and academics have been critical of the proposal, stating that many of these names do not have any direct colonial connections.
Anil Desai
Anil Desai is a two-time Rajya Sabha MP, contesting parliamentary elections for the first time. In a recent interview with TOI, Desai said that his party was facing the bias of ECI. While no objection was raised when PM Modi was asking voters to say Bajrang Bali while casting their votes, the ECI objected to Jai Bhavani in the anthem by his party, he said. Earlier this year, Desai was in the news when he was summoned by Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing for alleged unauthorised withdrawal of Rs 50 crore from the party fund.
Can you send me or publish the logo allotted for each candidate for this 2024 loksabha election in respect of Mumbai South Central.Those who cannot read, will be able to identify their candidate this.