Election 2019: Why Arvind Sawant Is Happy That Mukesh Ambani Endorsed Milind Deora

Mumbai South is possibly the nation’s richest constituency and is notorious for low voter turnouts. The “Narendra Modi wave” in 2014 moved the needle a bit, but also dislodged Congress leader Milind Deora who won from this constituency twice in 2004 and 2009. His challenger was the lesser known Shiv Sena leader Arvind Sawant who won with a margin of nearly one and half lakh votes.

Five years later, Deora, who’s now the Mumbai Congress chief, is battling to regain his lost ground. The former union minister is armed with endorsements from industrialists such as Mukesh Ambani and Uday Kotak, and a renewed party machinery. But his contender remains confident.

“Ambani’s endorsement for Milind is a good thing because now voters know who has adopted whom,” Sawant told Bloomberg Quint during a campaign trail.

While admitting that the “Modi wave” may not be the same as in the last election, he said the prime minister “remains the best choice”. That’s despite a bitter and uneasy alliance between his party and the Bharatiya Janata Party over the last five years.

Sawant, in his interview with BloombergQuint, talks about his contest with Deora, Shiv Sena-BJP alliance and the Raj Thackeray effect. Watch here...