Situated in one of the posh areas of the national capital, Jangpura in South East Delhi is bracing for an electoral battle that would have not been in the highlight until the AAP replaced its two-time MLA Praveen Kumar with former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is currently representing the Patparganj assembly seat.
In a reaction to this move, the BJP fielded Tarvinder Singh Marwah, a three-time MLA from the constituency who defected Congress to join the saffron party, to challenge Sisodia. Congress has nominated Farhad Suri, a former MCD mayor, as its candidate.
Once a stronghold of Congress, the saffron party has never won an election from this seat since the inception of the assembly elections in Delhi. To change this dynamic, it has trusted Marwah, who is though the longest-serving MLA from here, ran in the last three elections unsuccessfully albeit polling substantial votes.
The constituency is divided into Jangpura, Jangpura Extension, Jangpura A and Jangpura B. It has posh neighbourhoods of south Delhi, including Lajpat Nagar, Nizamuddin (East) and Sunder Nagar, urbanised villages like Kilokari, Bhogal, Nizamuddin Basti and Ashram.
Till the last decade, Punjabi voters, who had migrated from Rawalpindi and nearby areas after the partition in 1947, decided the fate of political representatives from here. However, like other parts of Delhi, their influence has somewhat decreased a bit but they still play a key role in the elections.
The elite shopping destination here also has slums alongside the Delhi ring railway network inhabited by the migrants. With the slum dwellers too holding a power base the freebies doled out to the voters by the parties will play a decisive role in the election.
As in the case of the rest of the city, civic woes are a major concern for the residents such as lack of parking facilities in markets, poor sanitation, dirty water, broken roads, waterlogging and sewage.
For the businessman of Bhogal market, security is an important issue as it was in 2023 when one of the biggest heists in the city of around Rs 20 crore took place in a jewelry shop in this market. “The market still lacks proper security forcing the businessmen to hire private security guards,” a shopkeeper told the newspaper, adding none of the three major parties, AAP, BJP, and Congress, are highlighting this issue.
Besides, roads in a bad shape and absence of parking space affects the business community in the Bhogal market which is one of the famous jewelry markets in the city, he added.
Jangpura won’t be a big deal for Manish Sisodia as the margin of votes with which his party colleague won the last two elections was almost 50 per cent. Sisodia’s closeness to AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal and a surety of getting a ministerial berth if the party returns to power gives him an edge over his rivals.
Marwah, on other hand, could score significant votes, both from the Punjabi community and core BJP voters. In fact, Harmeet Singh Kalka, president, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, urged the Sikh and Punjabi community to support Marwah in the elections. In addition, being an MLA thrice from here, he has a personal vote bank to support him.
Suri, who is not so popular in the media, is an equally strong contender. Being a former mayor and a four-time councilor from Daryaganj ward has a grip on the core Congress voters after Marwah left the party.