Mukesh Ambani, Uday Kotak endorse Milind Deora for Mumbai South LS seat

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, April 18

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and banker Uday Kotak have endorsed the candidature of Congress leader Milind Deora for the South Mumbai Lok Sabha seat.

The backing of Ambani, Reliance Industries Limited chairman, to the Congress leader comes at a time when the party has been unrelenting in attack on his industrialist- brother Anil Ambani over the Rafale deal.

The endorsements by the business leaders were part of a 2.17 minute-long video Deora posted on Twitter on Thursday.

“Milind is the right man for South Bombay. Having represented South Mumbai for 10 years, I believe Milind has in-depth knowledge of social, economic and cultural ecosystem of the constituency...,” Ambani said in his endorsement.

”Milind truly represents ‘Mumbai ka connection’. I genuinely believe Milind understands and relates to Mumbai for a long time,” banker Uday Kotak, who heads the Kotak Mahindra Bank, said in the same video.

The footage also has endorsements by common people including shopkeepers and small businessmen.

“From small shopkeepers to large industrialists—for everyone, South Mumbai means business. We need to bring businesses back to Mumbai and make job creation for our youth a top priority,” Deora commented on Twitter.

Milind Deora faces sitting Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant.

Both Mukesh Ambani and Kotak are long-standing associates of Milind’s late father Murli Deora who headed the city Congress unit for decades.

Deora’s relatives themselves are prominent businessmen who have headed industry associations in the past.