Mukesh Ambani, the chairmen of Reliance Industries broke his silence and endorsed the Congress party’s Milind Deora in the South Mumbai Lok Sabha seat.
In a 2.16-minute video
released by Milind Deora’s campaign managers, Ambani and Uday Kotak, managing
director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, endorsed the Congress candidate over Shiv
Sena’s Arvind Sawant for the prestigious seat.
Kotak said he “genuinely” felt that Deora is able
to relate to Mumbaikars. The banker said, “his family has been associated with
Mumbai for a long time. Milind truly represents Mumbai ka connection. The
video and the endorsement became a talking point in all the political circles
as it is the first time that the Ambani had publicly supported a candidate in
any election.
“Having represented South Mumbai for 10 years, I believe that Milind has in-depth knowledge of social, economic and cultural ecosystem of the constituency,” Mukesh Ambani says in the video. Sources close to congress candidate said that Deora was like an elder brother to Isha and Anant Ambani. Ambanis and Deoras have close family relations as Dhiru Ambani had endorsed Milind Deora’s Father Murli Deora in 1990.
What is also interesting is
that the Congress has been targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party on non-creation
of jobs while in Wednesday’s video Mukesh is heard talking of how Milind is the
right guy for South Mumbai to create employment opportunities in the
city.
In the last Lok Sabha polls, HDFC chairman
Deepak Parekh and Godrej group chairman Adi Godrej had also lent support to
Milind Deora’s candidature.