Will Priya Dutt make it from Mumbai North Central?

Congress Member of Parliament Priya Dutt, who is seeking re-election from the Mumbai North Central parliamentary constituency, has an edge over her nearest rivals even as she enters the poll fray to fight and prove that she is the true inheritor of father late Sunil Dutt's legacy.

Elder brother actor-turned-politician Sanjay Dutt's dreams of entering the Lok Sabha on a Samajwadi Party ticket from Lucknow were dashed after the Supreme Court refused to stay his conviction of six years imprisonment under the Arms act.

Sanjay, later went on a no-holds bar attack on the Congress and ridiculed Priya for staying on with the party. But, even three years after his death, Sunil Dutt is still a pull in this high profile constituency and majority of the voters feel that Priya is carrying on the legacy of her parents.

Her mother late Nargis was a staunch Congress loyalist and a Rajya Sabha member. Estrangement in the Dutt family became public after Sanjay's much publicised comments ticking off Priya for retaining the Dutt surname after marriage. There was even a court case against Priya for using her maiden name during the 2005 by-election but the petition was dismissed.

Even some Congress Members of Legislative Assemblies in the erstwhile North West

Mumbai constituency, who do not get along well with Priya, wanted Sanjay to contest instead of her on the grounds that he was Sunil Dutt's real heir.

Post delimitation, the erstwhile Mumbai North West has been re-christened North Central comprising 16,69,372 voters. Assembly constituencies of Vile Parle, Bandra east, Bandra west, Kalina which were part of North West have been retained. Kurla and Nehru Nagar, earlier parts of North East constituency, have been merged into North Central. Kurla is now called Chandivali and Nehru Nagar is Kurla (SC).

Vile Parle is a traditional Maharashtrian area whereas Santacruz, Vakola, Kalina falling in the Kalina assembly segment is a middle class area comprising Marathis, Gujaratis, Christians and as well as people from other states.

Bandra east comprises the slum pockets of Behrampada, Bharat Nagar. Government servants, literateurs as well as Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray are among the voters.

Whereas Bandra west is upper middle class locality and home to film luminaries like Dilip Kumar, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar.