The former enjoys the support of the Congress while the latter has the NCP's backing. The constituency which has been a citadel of the Sena-BJP, was snatched by Ramdas Athwale of the United RPI with a margin of 25,232 votes defeating Sena's Narayan Athwale in the last elections who polled 257141 votes. In the last polls, the United RPI was supported by the united Congress, which propelled it to victory, but the split in both the RPI and Congress have made Joshi's task of regaining the seat for sena much easier now. Joshi was the city corporator and Mayor in 1977-78, and MLA twice from the same constituency in 1990 and 1995. This is on account of the Kargil factor.
People today are very much concerned about national security.
Joshi is confident that the sailing will be smooth for him as he says people of the state have seen his work in the recent past. In the constituency which housed one of Asia's large slums Dharavi, provision of civil amenities continues to be the main issue at every elections. Political instability at the Centre, construction of houses for poor, Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp, provision of civic amenities chiefly at Dharavi, hawkers' issue, corruption at high places, performance of the alliance government in the state are among the issues being raised by the campaigners. Advocate B C Kamble is a veteran of the Sanyukta Maharashtra movement and star opponent of Indira Gandhi's emergency. Kamble who had lost to Narayan Athwale by a small margin from this constituency in 1996.