Bhavna Jain is one of the Candidates fighting the BMC elections from ward 64 in Juhu. She represents the Congress and is part of the Congress NCP alliance. The ward has around 50,000 voters.

I went to meet her at her office right next to Kishore Kumar’s bunglow in Juhu. . She had popped out for lunch and I sat there watching her party workers doing whatever it is that party workers do.  Sitting there, in an observer mode, a thought crossed my mind – despite lip service to equality, politics is very much a man’s world. Any woman is automatically at a disadvantage, especially in grass-roots politics. And, if you are a first generation aspiring politician – who has lived a middle class life, then it is all the more daunting.

But, Bhavna takes this

Bhavna comes from a fauji family. She has lived all over India. She finds ward 64, that she hopes to win for her party, a microcosm of Indian diversity. The ward extends from SNDT college to Juhu airport – has the koliwada (fisher colony) inhabited by Konkani speakers, has an enclave of Rajasthani Muslims, there are a bunch of Tamil speakers, plus a small enclave of people from UP – both Hindus and Muslims and of course the middle class, Juhu is one of the more prosperous parts of Mumbai – a number of people from the film fraternity, businesses, eateries etal.

An Engineer/MBA by training, Bhavna moved to the US with her husband way back in the 1990’s. They both returned 5 years ago because they wanted to be part of the India story. She joined politics because she believed it is important to take that plunge if you want to make the difference.

Why the corporation elections, i asked. After  all, not every aspiring politician looks at local government to make a mark. She smiled as she said that this was the most important form of Government as it could directly impact the lives of the people who lived there. Her priorities are water, sanitation and schools.

She has given up her US green card to stay on and take part in politics. I felt it was kind of extreme, and told her so. She said that she didn’t’ want her opponents to have a stick to hit her with ….. she was here to stay and work.

It is so easy to give up on the political process or say it is a dirty game not for ‘people like us’.  it is so difficult to try to make a change despite all that you know about the system.

Many thanks to Priyanka Chaturvedi for that introduction