Congress unable shake the BJP stronghold in the national capital Delhi? BJP on course to win all seven constituencies in Delhi

Kanhaiya Kumar vs Manoj Tiwari in North East Delhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on course to win in all seven constituencies in Delhi.

As of 1730 IST, the BJP is leading in North West Delhi, West Delhi, North East Delhi, New Delhi, South Delhi, East Delhi and Chandni Chowk, accroding to latest trends accessed by Moneycontrol.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Indian National Congress (INC) are is trailing on all seven seats they are contesting in Delhi.

The INC and AAP have joint hands in Delhi to contest seats in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, with congress sending its contestant in Chandni Chowk, North East Delhi and North West Delhi and AAP contesting the remaining four seats in the national capital.

North East Delhi 

The contest between Manoj Tiwari (BJP) and Kanhaiya Kumar (INC) for the North East Delhi seat will be the biggest headliner in the fight between the two biggest political parties in Delhi.

The seat is expected to be tightly contested with a 21 percent muslim and 16.78 percent Scheduled Castes (SC) population expected to swing the seat.

The seat has been won by the Tiwari in the last two Lok Sabha elections, who remains the sole incumbent member of parliament kept by the saffron party.

However, Kumar ,the former president of the JNU Students' Union, will be hoping to serve

This region served as the epicentre of the 2020 Delhi riots, which resulted in 53 fatalities and 583 injuries, with topics like the Citizenship Amendment Act being the focus of discussions.

Chandni Chowk

The INC and BJP will also be going head to head in Chandni Chowk with Praveen Khandelwal leading the incumbent party and Jai Prakash Agarwal leading the challenger.

With 21.14 percent SC and 16.7 percent muslim population in Chandni Chowk, the seat is expected to be hotly contested between the two parties, with the seat being head by political heavyweights like Harsh Vardhan from the BJP in 2019 and 2014 and Kapil Sibal from the INC in 2009.

Making his political debut Khandelwal is the founder of the Confederation of All India Traders and has been representing local traders and small businessmen in Delhi.

His opponent Jai Prakash Aggarwal is a veteran political leader who has been elected to the Lok Sabha from Delhi four times in the past fourty years.

Aggarwal has won the Lok Sabha Seat from North East Delhi (in 1984), Chandni Chowk in (1989), and North East Delhi (in 1996 and 2009)

North West Delhi

Similarly, North West Delhi will be closely contested between fomer chairperson of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi Yogender Chandoliya (BJP) and former civil servant and BJP leader Udit Raj (INC).

While Chandolia will make his debut in the Lok Sabha elections this year, dalit leader Udit Raj had quit the BJP in 2019 after being denied a ticket by the BJP,  the ruling party had fielded Punjabi singer Hans Raj Hans’ from North West Delhi seat in 2019.

Chandolia had contested the Delhi Assembly elections in 2015 and 2020 representing the BJP from Karol Bagh but lost to Aam Aadmi Party's Vishesh Ravi both times.

North West Delhi is a major seat reserved for SC candidates from Delhi in the Lok Sabha elections with Hans Raj Hans winning the seat in 2019, Udit Raj winning the seat while represeting the BJP in 2014 and Krishna Tirath of the INC winning in 2009.

Around 20 percent of the population in the North West Delhi constituency is categorised under the SC umbrella by the election commision of India.

Lok Sabha elections in Delhi

While the Congress won all seven seats in the national capital in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it lost out all seats in Delhi in the subsequent elections of 2014 and 2019 to the BJP.

However, despite winning with a clean sweep in Lok Sabha elections the BJP has lost in Delhi assembly elections conducted a year later each time.

In 2015, AAP won 67 of 70 seats and BJP won three, similarly on 2019 the BJP could only improve its tally by a mere five and won eight seats, while AAP won 62, despite some of the BJP's biggest leaders campaining in the national capital.

The BJP is expected to face a tougher challenge in the national capital region this year following the AAP and BJP joining hands according to analyst

"If you look at the 2019 vote share then it is a very difficult task even when AAP and Congress have aligned. Even in absolute numbers the BJP has won by 2 lakh plus votes in 2019 in Delhi. Yes it is a very difficult task even if they have come together but what is happening though is that the contest has become thinner,” said Rahul Verma, fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.

“If they were contesting separately BJP would have had a cakewalk. But now the contest has become closer; whoever wins will not win by a large margin,” Verma added.