Four ‘old’ warhorses are first-time Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra

But four first-time MPs from Maharashtra have begun new careers in their 60s; well almost, for one of them will turn 60 next week and another is 76.

Sixty is an age when most retire. But four first-time MPs from Maharashtra have begun new careers in their 60s; well almost, for one of them will turn 60 next week and another is 76. These newly elected MPs tasted electoral success for the first time in their political careers.

In Mumbai, the BJP’s Piyush Goyal, a former Union Minister, will be 60 on June 13. This election was his first attempt to win a Lok Sabha seat. So far, Mr. Goyal has been a member of the Rajya Sabha and has handled multiple portfolios, including finance, railways, coal, corporate affairs, commerce and industry, and textiles.

Mr. Goyal’s parents were BJP loyalists. In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, his father Vedprakash Goyal was the Union Minister of shipping. His mother, Chandrakanta Goyal, was a three-time MLA from Mumbai’s Matunga constituency.

Mr. Goyal won the Mumbai North seat, considered ‘safe’ given the large presence of Gujarati, Kutchi and Marwari-speaking voters, particularly in the suburbs of Kandivali, Borivali and Dahisar. He won by a margin of 3.57 lakh votes against the Congress’s Bhushan Patil.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Desai, elected from Mumbai’s South-Central seat, is 67. A Thackeray family loyalist and close aide of the party leader Uddhav Thackeray, the former Rajya Sabha member is often involved in managing and strategising elections.

It was a close contest between him and his former party colleague Rahul Shewale of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Mr. Desai was reportedly unhappy after being given the South-Central seat as he had set his sights on the neighbouring North-Central constituency. His strategising skills combined with voter sympathy towards Mr. Thackeray’s Sena and anti-incumbency worked in his favour. He won by 53,384 votes.

His biggest leads came from Dharavi and Anushakti Nagar that have a large Muslim and Dalit population. Until just over a decade ago, these two communities were not Shiv Sena voters. This time, a softer stance on these communities worked in favour of the Sena (UBT).