All eyes have turned to Lutyen’s Delhi, as the national capital goes to vote in the sixth phase of the ongoing elections.
After the prolonged pandemonium over the Congress-AAP alliance, the battle in Delhi will be one to watch out for. In addition, Delhi has more reasons to be in the limelight because of the stars in the fray for the Lok Sabha elections this time.
Delhi has seven constituencies and the national parties’ choice of candidates is quite intriguing.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, there was a tight contest between the BJP and the Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The saffron party ended up winning all seven seats by polling 46.6 percent votes, while AAP came a distant second with 33 percent votes and yet no seats in its kitty.
The Congress, which was placed a distant third in 2014 with 15 percent votes, may have had the odds favouring it this time if the AAP-Congress alliance would have concretised. However, the proposal of shaking hands with an ideologically antithetical nemesis wasn’t ingested well by workers of both parties as well as their vote base.
Read Also: Why is the Congress reluctant in forging an alliance with AAP in Delhi?
Meanwhile, the saffron party has indulged in picking wild cards to retain its base as AAP’s landslide victory in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections made it seemingly nervous and insecure. The Congress has been quick to follow suit.
Delhi East
The BJP has picked cricketer Gautam Gambhir to contest from the Delhi East constituency, often known as ‘Yamuna paar’ in common parlance. Giving him a tough fight is AAP’s Atishi, who grabbed media attention by contending Gambhir’s candidature, alleging that he has two voter IDs. The Congress has fielded loyalist Arvinder Singh Lovely, and this happens to be his home constituency.
With the constituency suffering from underdevelopment, Atishi is seen talking about education and healthcare under the AAP government, in which she was actively involved. Actor Swara Bhasker was seen campaigning for her.
On the other hand, Gambhir is seen cleaning the banks of the Yamuna river, which is the source of 70 percent of the capital’s water needs.
North West Delhi
Similarly, in the reserved North West Delhi seat, the BJP has fielded singer Hans Raj Hans, replacing sitting MP Udit Raj, who switched over to the Congress after being denied a ticket. Meanwhile, AAP has fielded Guggan Ranga, who had taken the party to victory during the 2018 Bawana bypoll.
North West Delhi comprises JJ clusters and those who had been displaced during the Commonwealth Games. The region is dominated by lower class and minority communities. With Udit Raj not contesting, this demographic is now expected to vote for the AAP. While Raj was a champion of minorities in the region, his last-minute shift to the Congress hasn’t given his followers a window to make the shift with him.
On the one hand, BJP’s Hans Raj Hans is trying to work his charm, but is still being looked at as an outsider; on the other, AAP is mobilising lower caste, lower class, as well as minorities, a formula that worked for them in the 2015 assembly elections. The BJP is cashing in on AAP and Congress eating into each other’s vote share. AAP, meanwhile, is standing by its developmental projects, such as launching Mohalla clinics and providing subsidized water to JJ clusters.
Delhi South
Taking a leaf out of the BJP’s book, the Congress has fielded Olympic medal –winning boxer Vijender Singh from Delhi South. A political greenhorn, Vijender is seen actively posting videos of ‘ground reality’ from his social media handles, but seems to be unaware of the division of powers between the state government and the Centre in Delhi.
He is pitted against BJP’s seasoned legislator Ramesh Bidhuri and AAP’s Raghav Chadha, for whom actor Gul Panag was seen campaigning.
Delhi North East
The Delhi North East constituency is also prepped for a high-decibel contest. The BJP has fielded sitting MP Manoj Tiwari, a popular Bhojpuri singer-actor. He had joined BJP in 2013 ahead of the assembly elections.
Giving him a tough fight is Congress heavyweight Sheila Dikshit, who has been the longest-serving chief minister of Delhi, holding the post for 15 years from 1998 to 2013.
Meanwhile, AAP has fielded Dilip Pandey, who has been campaigning extensively in the constituency, which has a significant rural belt.
Other than that, New Delhi will see an interesting battle between BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi and Congress’ Ajay Maken.
Although Delhi is not a bellwether region, often the party it chooses ends up forming the government at the Centre. In 1999, the BJP won all seven seats of the city; in 2004 and 2009, the INC won six and seven seats, respectively; in 2014, the BJP repeated its victory from 1999.
Delhi usually votes with staggering single-mindedness, translating their resolve to a sweeping majority, obliterating any ambiguity in the process. However, the city which votes with a certain single-mindedness also has a tendency of giving blinding surprises — we will find out only on May 23.
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