Divya Dholay: I did my Post Graduate in - Masters in Management Studies – Sales & Marketing. Previously I Worked with IBM India . Currently Iam working as a IT & Green Energy Consultant and Iam very Passionate to promote Solar Rooftop solutions in Urban cities.

Joining BJP was just an accident and was not predefined. In March 2002 I was at IBM India Pvt Ltd Mumbai office for JoB interview. At that time during the course of my interaction with the then HR manager & subsequent talks on mutual interests, few topics got discussed on politics where I expressed that I am inquisitive to know the political party ecosystem work but have no clue how to get connected or what is the methodology to approach political party organization.

Surprisingly the HR manager happened to be a member of BJP & he immediately offered me to join BJP and later inducted me into organization work. Earlier years were just observation from my part as it was a different world all together from the corporate world.

Divya Dholay: I haven’t transitioned completely as yet because still I manage both the fronts in a parallel way. I am very Passionate towards by Political career, but i devote a good amount of time in my IT related works also. Its basically a time management which one needs to handle appropriately. I believe , One needs to keep continuing his/her profession on one side to run their household and side by side should venture in to politics .

Regarding Challenges, Yes i did find some while i first stepped out in Dharavi as a MLA candidate or Prior to that in various party meetings i attended . But that was limited to some blank human reactions primarily due to my professional background or may be how i carried my self that time fresh out of my IBM habitat.

Currently, i am fully concentrated towards my efforts in the Versova Constituency, where i live. I am getting into understanding the day to day difficulties of the people of versova and trying to fix out the things here. I have my full fledged NGO here by the name of Sankalp Siddhi Trust having a Citizens Help Centre where i get daily visits of people having wide ranging issues.

Divya Dholay - I reside in Versova AC however in 2014 when BJP- Shiv Sena alliance broke off , I was surprisingly asked to contest from Dharavi AC which is a SC reserved seat as a BJP state candidate. Dharavi has prominently been a Congress Bastion for more than 30 years.

In the previous years the constituency was primarily represented by Shiv Sena as per there seat sharing arrangement with BJP and later never got a chance to contest for the same . Due to this, the party lacked in any strong grass root structure in the area. As a result though I knew that the fight would be tough one I still accepted the challenge. Dharavi is known as a mini India with multi religion mass base of Muslims, South Indians, Uttar Bharatiya, Maharashtrians, Gujaratis etc. Major percentage of community belongs to SC community. Educated population is low.

The area has mix of industrial & residential premises with large number of migrant workers. After seeing people residing in these slums of Dharavi under inhumane conditions, it was a nightmare for me. The area has so many issues that whole manifesto can de dedicated to the place like - Public toilets were pathetic, Cleanliness was rare view, industrial pollution at its high causing deadly diseases like cancer, TB is common after every 50th house, Average education level is below 10th standard, BMC schools were only upto 7/8th standard, post that students have to search for other schools to continue their education , the area has void of good schools or even a proper branded college. The list is long .

In whatever short time I got of 13-14 odd days , along with team BJP Dharavi we did the maximum campaign & propagated the various Central government schemes which Dharavi residents either never heard of or being purposely kept away .

Modi Government had announced PM Jan Dhan Yojana, PM Jeevan Suraksha Yojana, PM Jeevan Bima Yojana, Mudra Yojana etc but people in Dharavi knew little about them. We made the people aware how Congress was keeping them away from social security schemes and not implementing it in Dharavi. All our efforts managed to get BJP to 3rd position with 20763 votes.

I can say that this was a good performance from our team considering the short time we got to prepare and the fact the party was fighting from there after a long time with a very few numbers of dedicated workers. My experience during the election was good as I was going around door to door and meeting people & knowing their day to day problems & issues. People were not used to meeting BJP candidates so it used to take lot of efforts to first get them accept us & then talk about Modi ji & BJP government initiatives for people benefits & how Dharavi would benefit if they vote for BJP & make BJP win.

During the Course of the campaign I got to share stage with BJP stalwarts who came in to Dharavi for my campaign & encouraged me as well as the Dharavi people . Shri Venkaya Naidu ji, Late Smt Sushma Swaraj ji, Shri Satyapal singh ji , Shri Jagdambika Pal ji, Shri Purushotam Rupala ji, Shri H Raja, Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Shri Vinod Tawde ji and so on the list is exhaustive.

Currently, i am the Vidhan Sabha head of Dharavi, and due to the hard work done before, i am able to nurture the constituency towards the upcoming assembly elections in the later part of 2024.

Divya Dholay: Yes I took the decision because at that time BJP Government was formed in Maharashtra and was headed by Shri Devendra Fadnavis ji. It made sense to continue working in Dharavi & showcase the people how a candidate who has lost still can do many things for the constituency when her party comes in power.

I took the opportunity & started with first hand implementation of government schemes . People saw benefit in coming to us due to all the information which we were sharing with them. Dharavi has large percentage of Muslim community which was very averse towards BJP ( this was a tough challenge) , however it was matter of initiating a better communication with them & assuring them that what matters is their work and their solutions irrespective od Party and if they need help BJP team is there for them. I must be probably the only women from BJP who has visited 55 masjids in Dharavi which made a big difference to the community.

This one act was enough for them to start trusting me. The balance between all communities was evenly being managed. Through my NGO I started working on subjective issues like installation of CCTV surveillance cameras in Dharavi for public safety & security , Smoke free furnaces for Potters in Kumbharwada, Skill Development & New technology grained machines for Potters for Kumbharwada from Khadi & Village industries ltd ,Tree plantation for children of dharavi etc . Community programs like Dharavi Mahotsav , Dharavi Eed Mahotsav , CM Chashak Sports & Cultural Festival programs were organized which was a totaly new dimension to the Dharavi residents.

Through Government help approvals were brought in for Mahim Skywalk lightening, Mahim Railway east Escalator, Shahu Nagar school, Kala killa fort renovation etc . There were no problems faced by me as all work was planned strategically to reach every corner of Dharavi & every household .

Divya Dholay - Women Participation in BJP has grown substantially high since past few years. But besides participation what is more important is the ground field work which one needs to get exposed to & get it going.. I strongly feel that women like me who come from Urban city having high educational & professional background should not be seen or evaluated considering that I belong to a particular SC/ST community & then fielded on ground in SC / ST constituencies.

We should be given to contest in Open category constituencies also because what matters at the end of the day is what work the candidate is capable of doing for the public after winning. Just to quote Dharavi has been a SC constituency for years but still what development has happened in there with 30 years of legacy from Congress SC candidate? I haven’t seen any Dalit telling me that something exponential has been done for them by the Congress in their tenure.

Divya Dholay – Good works seldom goes in vain . My works which I carried out from Dharavi were for the people, and they still love me and remember me for all that.They openly say that the Quality of work I brought to Dharavi was never done before by anyone. Many of my works have termed as historic . My home base has always been Versova where I have my NGO – Sankalp Siddhi Trust's office and have been catering to people of Versova in the form of Government Citizen Services Centre, introducing and executing various government schemes for people.

According to me , in 2014 though I being a resident of Versova , when I was asked to contest from Dharavi I obeyed the party . Post election after losing , I gave my best services to the people of Dharavi till 2019 which were appreciated by people at large. In 2019 when BJP- Shiv Sena alliance happened,the seat was given to Shiv Sena. That time I Decided that it is the time to take a calculative decision and move back to home base.

All good work done in Dharavi will some day will pay back for sure to the benefit of BJP ,says my inner voice .