Its candidates 'vanish', but Naya Daur stays put in race

Even though the party failed to make a mark in the last Assembly polls, the spirit of the Naya Daur Party is still high.

Comprising a motley group of lawyers, doctors and engineers, the party does not want to rely on the formula of “opportunism”.

Party members describe themselves as “victims like you of a corrupt uncaring divisive system” in the website.

Party chief Sanjeev Chibber, a senior cancer surgeon, is contesting from the New Delhi constituency, where the AAP has fielded its chief Arvind Kejriwal and the Congress Kiran Walia. The debutant is confident that will “spring a surprise or two” soon.

“It will be a tough contest, yes. I could have fought the elections from the Kasturba Nagar seat being a resident of Defence Colony. I am a known face there. But being the party president, it was important that I fight from a seat which is so prestigious,” says Chibber.

Asked if the party holds the image of being run single-handedly by him, he laughs it off. He wants to downplay the attention attracted, he joked. Currently, the party has three lakh supporters in Delhi alone, he claimed.

Chibber is confident that even in the worst scenario, he will be able to cause a dent in the vote share of the BJP, AAP and Congress. “Who knows, I may win too,” he added.

The party fought the last Assembly elections from eight seats, including RK Puram, Rajendar Nagar, Matia Mahal, Balliraman, Kasturba Nagar and Malviya Nagar.

This year, party was all set to field 47 candidates. However, according to party workers, the candidates just “vanished” at the last moment. Now, only eight candidates remain.

“The challenges for a small party like ours are many. The candidates were to file nominations and then just vanished. They were incommunicable even over phones after that,” said Satish Mukhiya, the election in-charge.

However, the party is assured of performing well from at least two constituencies this time — Sangam Vihar and Shakur Basti. “The mental strength is what is most important in fighting the elections. We are serious, sane people with a long-term vision,” said the party chief.

Chibber refers to himself as the “main person of the Anna Hazare movement” and relies heavily on English poets and German philosophers to back his argument on joining politics to “serve people”.

Taking a dig at the AAP and the BJP and the “turncoats” in the parties, Chibber said, “The Congress has surprisingly been angelic this time. Both the AAP and BJP are openly handing out freebies before elections. Very soon, we will expose more such corruption cases against the AAP.”

With the aid of 250 volunteers whom the party is providing “only lunch and no payments”, the party wants to strike a chord among the middle-class and poor alike. The party is focusing on three major areas to bag votes — medical insurance for all, uninterrupted water supply, and government schools to be on par with private schools for “sound education”.

“We want to connect with people from all economic backgrounds. We would have had an elitist image if we were talking of free Wi-Fi,” said the party president.