‘Battle for capital’ focuses on issues

It has been dubbed the “Battle for the Capital”.

Lok Sabha elections for seven constituencies in Delhi are scheduled to begin tomorrow and various parties have campaigned to the hilt to attract voters in their favour. The seven constituencies from the state of Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections are: New Delhi, Chandni Chowk, North East Delhi, North West Delhi, West Delhi, East Delhi and South Delhi.

From the celebrated New Delhi constituency, which last year witnessed the drubbing of former chief minister Sheila Dikshit in the state elections, two-time incumbent Congress MP Ajay Maken is facing a stiff challenge from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Meenakshi Lekhi. Ashish Khetan of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Solomon George are the other contestants from this constituency.

The campaign has been technology-savvy as most of the candidates have rigorously used online canvassing alongside conventional modes of campaigning. While Ajay Maken appointed a special team to conduct his online publicity, Meenakshi Lekhi outsourced her ICT campaign to a public relations company. There is said to be much discontent in this constituency over issues of corruption, unemployment and price rise. Still the Congress general secretary (Maken) is upbeat about his victory in the polls. “Not the so-called ‘Modi wave’, this constituency is under the sway of the ‘pro-incumbency wave’ and wants me back as their MP,” Maken avers.

For her part, Lekhi accuses Maken’s governance as tainted with corruption. She insists: “Maken’s clean image is a farce. DDA’s Kathputli Colony land which was worth Rs1,000 billion was given to a private company for some Rs60 million only. Maken was the Union Urban Development minister and this happened on his watch.” Maken calls these charges as unfounded and politically motivated.

Meanwhile in East Delhi, debutants Maheish Girri from the BJP and Rajmohan Gandhi (noted historian and grandson of the Mahatma) from AAP are giving a tough fight to two-term incumbent Sandeep Dikshit. The challengers are highlighting several local issues in their campaigns such as the resettlement of slum dwellers, the need for improved condition of roads and sewage and the regularisation of a few unauthorised colonies.

According to Rajmohan Gandhi, “This constituency needs a lot of development. People don’t even have basic amenities here. Both the Congress and the BJP have not done anything for the people.” The eminent scholar has released a local manifesto for the constituency and brought the leader of his party, Arvind Kejriwal to address a road show in his constituency.

Trying to take advantage of the Modi wave sweeping the country, Maheish Girri of the BJP also laments the “lack of development” in the constituency under the Congress rule. He had the BJP patriarch L.K. Advani and senior leader Arun Jaitley attend an impressive rally in Khichdipur village last Sunday. The tri-party contest in the constituency here is largely relying on conducting road shows, road meetings and day-to-day campaigns.

In North East Delhi, the three primary contenders are the incumbent J.P. Aggarwal (Congress), Manoj Tiwari (BJP) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Professor Anand Kumar (AAP). This part of Delhi continues to suffer from power outages, poor infrastructure and roads, lack of good educational facilities, inflation and corruption.

In spite of these grievances among the public, Aggarwal remains optimistic about his prospects in the elections. He claims: “I am the only Delhi MP to have spent the MPLAD funds. I know the problems of the area; others don’t even know the geography.” For his part, the AAP candidate Professor Anand Kumar has issued a local manifesto for the constituency and is holding regular public meetings to woo voters. He is reported to have said: “This is the second freedom struggle for the people of this constituency. We will bring an end to the netashahi-babushahi (politician-bureaucracy) nexus.”

Dubbed ‘Little Punjab’, West Delhi is grappling with issues of power outages and poor infrastructure. In addition, glaring problems facing women’s safety as well as lack of proper education and sports facilities have emerged as vital campaign issues. Sitting Congress MP Mahabal Mishra is contesting debutant candidate Jarnail Singh from AAP, who is better known for throwing his shoe at Congress leader P. Chidambaram. For its part, the BJP has fielded the son of former chief minister Saheb Singh Verma, Parvesh Verma, from this constituency.

In South Delhi, there is a keen contest between BJP’s candidate Ramesh Bidhuri, sitting MP and Congress candidate Ramesh Kumar and AAP candidate Col. (Retd.) Devindra Sherawat. The prospects for the incumbent are said to be grim as the electorate seems to be grappling with price rise, poor water supply and other shortcomings in governance. The BJP candidate has also drawn flak recently for making “provocative” statements against the Muslim community.

From Chandni Chowk, the so-called ‘heart of Delhi’, two-term MP Kapil Sibal of the Congress has promised that he would continue his “redevelopment initiatives”. Opposing him is the former journalist Ashutosh, who vows to fight communalism and to provide equal opportunities to all parties. Meanwhile, the BJP candidate from the area Dr Harsh Vardhan (former Delhi health minister) has promised to simplify value-added tax (VAT) collection and improve healthcare in the constituency.

The famously neglected North-West Delhi area is grappling with endemic issue of slum clusters and unauthorised colonies. Here the Congress incumbent MP Krishna Tirath is contesting against Rakhi Birla of the AAP and Udit Raj of the BJP.

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