Mumbai North Central is considered as one of the safest seats for Congress in the coming Lok Sabha elections, as sitting MP Priya Dutt had won with a margin of 1.77 lakh votes in 2009.
It comprises the assembly segments of Vile Parle, Kalina, Kurla, Chandivali, Vandre East and Vandre West. Kurla and Chandivali were earlier part of the Mumbai North East.
Congress holds four of these Assembly seats; Kurla has an NCP MLA, while Vandre East has a Shiv Sena MLA.
BJP took some time to decide the candidate who would take on Priya, daughter of the late Congress leader Sunil Dutt. Names of actor Nana Patekar and former IPS officer Satyapal Singh were doing rounds, but finally the party chose Poonam Mahajan, daughter of the late BJP leader, Pramod Mahajan.
The battle, thus, would be mainly between daughters of two high-profile political leaders who are no more.
Poonam has said she would be able to cash in on the "anti-Congress" mood in the country. While Priya says she takes the opposition seriously, but the development work of the UPA, the state government and her own work in the constituency would see her through.
Vile Parle MLA Krishna Hegde pointed out that Poonam had lost the Assembly election in 2009 by 25,000 votes from Mumbai North East, a part of her father's constituency. "This is Priya Dutt's stronghold. Priya has bettered her winning tally in the last election," he said.
Hegde also pointed out that AAP had not put up any candidate here so far (which could help Congress