BMC polls: Student from Madanpura to fight veterans

MUMBAI: At 22, Adil Mobin Qureishi is among the youngest candidates to fight the BMC polls. The atypical neta is still in college, doing his second year in Bachelor in Transport Management at Hinduja College. He is not yet an orator and has not learned the art of “doublespeak”.
The MIM candidate from Ward 211 of Madanpura is pitted against Raees Shaikh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) group leader in the outgoing civic house, and Congress candidate Masirah Itijaj Ahmed Ansari, former Congress MLA and sitting corporator Faiyaz Khan’s relative.
Qureishi is banking on 200 young men who are campaigning for him. “I am inexperienced in politics but know my area very well,” says Qureishi, son of social worker Mobin Qureishi. With a population of 60,000, 80% of whom are Muslims, Madanpura is a deprived south Mumbai ghetto. Members of famous organizations of Madanpura—Halqa-e-Ahbab Trust and a century-old orphanage Anjuman Mufeedul-Yateema—told TOI that votes will go to the one who espouses genuine causes. “When I tell my batchmates I am from Madanpura, they are surprised. A Muslim from Madanpura in Hinduja College is not normal. I want to change this image,” he said.