Mumbai: The Narwekar family has won all three seats that they contested from on BJP tickets in BMC’s A ward in south Mumbai.Makrand Narwekar and brother of Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar won from ward no. 226, which includes parts of Cuffe Parade. His cousin, who contested for the first time, Gauravi Shivalkar Narwekar, won from ward no. 227 (Colaba), and his sister-in-law, Harshita Narwekar, won from ward no. 225 (Fort). Makrand was the richest candidate contesting the BMC elections and had declared assets worth Rs 124 crore.Harshita won with a huge margin despite being pitted against Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena candidate Sujata Sanap, who is a part of Mahayuti alliance. It was one of the three seats where both Shinde Sena and BJP candidates were fielded. The runner-up here was Ajinkya Ashok Dhatrak of Shiv Sena (UBT), who got 6,423 votes.The wins came despite the seats being shuffled this time. Makrand won from ward no. 227 in the past two elections, where Gauravi was fielded, while Harshita contested from ward no. 225 despite winning from ward no. 226 in the last election.BJP candidates in ward numbers 225, 226, and 227 did not scrape through, but registered convincing victories, said Rahul Narwekar. “This is a befitting reply to those who tried to set a fake narrative against the Narwekar family and defamed us. The people of Colaba stood by us and we will continue with the development of Colaba. Our rivals used every dirty trick in the book to defame us, but could not succeed. The people showed faith in the work done by PM Modi and CM Devendra Fadnavis. Now, Colaba too has a triple engine,” he added.A controversy had erupted on the last day of filing of nomination forms for the BMC polls, when former MP Haribhau Rathod levelled allegations against Rahul Narwekar, accusing him of intimidation and misuse of authority. Rathod, along with a few political parties like AAP, claimed that Narwekar warned him against filing nomination papers against BJP candidates and threatened to withdraw his security cover. He also claimed that Narwekar was present at the nomination-filling venue until 5pm on Dec 30, allegedly pressuring candidates to withdraw their nominations to facilitate uncontested wins for his kin.
