If one is looking at a wide variety of issues that people have in mind as the Capital goes to hustings, one can find them in the South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency.
Civic issues like parking problems and traffic congestion are a nightmare for many in this heavily populated part of the Capital. Besides, there are many who complain of acute water shortage. Others moan that proper sewer system has not been given the attention it deserves.
“Traffic jams affect all as people have to spend long hours to visit even a place not far away from their residences due to growing number of vehicles on Delhi roads”, says Karam Singh of Badarpur.
Be that as it may, caste connections and regional factors weigh heavily on voters’ minds.
The South Delhi constituency, comprises 10 Assembly segments ~ Chhatarpur, Palam, Bijwasan, Kalkaji, Mehrauli, Deoli, Ambedkar Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Tughlaqabad and Badarpur ~ has a large presence of Gujjars, Jats and Poorvanchalis.
Migrants from eastern Uttar Pradesh and the adjacent districts in Bihar known as Poorvanchalis constitute a major vote bank in this constituency which is going to witness a triangular contest between sitting BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri, Congress party’s Vijender Singh and AAP’s Raghav Chadha.
Sarfara Ahmed, a taxi driver of Sangam Vihar, said: “Here people are not so interested in nationalism, national security and economic growth as in jobs and other local issues which play a role in their daily lives. They want well-maintained roads, piped water supply, adequate healthcare facilities, good schools and better civic amenities.”
The constituency, which included many upscale areas before the delimitation exercise of 2008, now has bulk of its population living in villages, unauthorised and resettlement colonies and slums, all of which have major infrastructural problems.
The South Delhi constituency has 20,67,463 voters ~ 11,67359 men and 8,98,266 women.
The voter concentration in unauthorised colonies comes to around 50 per cent which shows that issues related to these areas are bound to influence people’s decision to cast their votes.
People in general in the unauthorised colonies seem apparently angry with the Congress as it could not get them regularised when the party had its government for 10 years at the Centre as well as in the state with Sheila Dikshit as Chief Minister for three consecutive terms.
Tughlaqabad resident Anil Kumar said, “the Congress is suffering because of its lacklustre approach on the issue of regularisation of deserving unauthorised colonies, where a large section of the capital’s population lives.”
A large chunk of 35 per cent voters live in rural areas. BJP candidate Bidhuri is believed to have a substantial following among them. Approximately 10 per cent of voters lives in resettlement colonies and a mere five per cent in planned areas.
Ramesh Bidhuri, who defeated AAP’s Devinder Sehrawat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls by 1.07 votes, had garnered 45.15 per cent votes against his principal opponent’s tally of 35.45 per cent votes. In 2009, the BJP candidate could secure only 36.52 per cent votes and lost the elections to Congress candidate Ramesh Kumar, who received 49.27 per cent votes.
In his campaign, Bidhuri has blamed the AAP government for doing little for rural areas and unauthorised colonies. “AAP promised to open 500 schools in Delhi, 71 in each of the 70 colonies, but we have not seen even one such school in the last four years”, claims Bidhuri. His poll promises include “water for each kitchen, work on Delhi Metro phase four within 100 days after the elections and revamping of unauthorised colonies.”
On the other hand, Raghav Chadha says that people are fed up with the BJP MP’s style of functioning. “The kind of work the AAP has done for South Delhi in the last four years compared to what Bidhuri has done, distinguishes the party which has political commitment to serve people from those who are interested in power,” Chadha claims.
The AAP candidate believes that women form a crucial vote base. “Traditionally, political parties have looked at castes, communities, religious groups as vote banks. I believe women are a vote base that no politician looks at seriously. This time, women of South shall cut across caste, religion lines to vote for an educated and dedicated candidate instead a goon”, he makes a daring claim.
Chadha sees the basic issues in South Delhi include piped water supply, electricity, education, healthcare, sewage and roads. He believes that full statehood for Delhi shall be the panacea for all problems people in the national capital face.
Congress candidate Vijender Singh, a well-known boxer who won an Olympic medal, is new to politics, but he is banking on his appeal among youngsters and the work of the Congress government during the 15 years when Sheila Dikshit was the Chief Minister. He says, “I can’t see any Modi wave anywhere. People have identified the real face. Youth just want employment; they say ‘jumlon se peth nahi bharega’ (rhetorics can’t fill stomachs).”