JOIN USAstrologer, techie add flavour to GK
“Off-the-record”, he can already tell you which party will form the government in the Capital. He gives a clean break-up of the number of seats that the major parties will bag. Meet Ashok Kumar – an astrologer.
Kumar, 58, will fight his debut election from the Greater Kailash constituency on a Shiv Sena ticket.
In high-profile Greater Kailash seat, from where the President’s Sharmistha Mukherjee has been fielded, voters are warming up to see a triangular contest. Pitted against her is AAP’s Saurabh Bhardwaj, who won the seat during 2013 Delhi Assembly elections and BJP’s Rakesh Gullaiya.
But you may have missed out noticing a few other candidates in the area who are fighting the elections for the first time. Kumar is one of them.
Kumar is relying on his two-wheeler and three cars “borrowed from friends” to campaign for the polls. But he is not banking on any formula to bag votes. Neither does he claim that his candidature will cause a dent in the vote share of the major parties.
“All I am telling residents is to vote calculatively. My message is think clearly which party can bring a change in living conditions and against corruption. I am not campaigning to seek votes for myself or the party,” says Kumar.
Earlier employed in service, Kumar now ekes out living as an astrologer. “Of course I know which party will form the government here,” he chuckles, giving up a possible break-up of the seats.
“I thought contesting the polls would at least give me the power to tell people to choose between the right and wrong.”
“If I can strike a chord with them, may be they will vote for me.” As Kumar spent the Sunday meeting residents of Chirag Dilli, candidates of the Congress, BJP and AAP utilised the last weekend before the Capital goes to polls meeting people in RWAs and interacting in informal groups.
Meanwhile, parked a few metres apart, autos with posters of AAP, Congress and BJP tried to outdo one other in jingles in the constituency.
Another unknown face in the constituency who is trying to make a mark as an independent candidate is Sanjay Khatri. An electronic engineer, Khatri runs a business of production of CCTV cameras.
Khatri would like to see himself as a social worker and not as a politician, he clarifies.
Even though fighting the elections is his own call, it is his wife who motivates him how to about it and prepares his campaigning schedule.
His vision is clear — to make a mark in the constituency. “Around three months back, I identified two urban villages — one in Chirag Dilli and the other in Sheikh Sarai. We conducted a survey and identified the lanes which had no signages. The living conditions is also poor in these areas. So I thought it would give residents an identity if I provide signages of each lane in these areas,” says Khatri.
A resident of Pamposh Enclave, he has the support of his friends and neighbours, he adds. “People are receiving me warmly. There are two kinds of people — one who criticise the existing system and the other who decide to go a step ahead. I chose to be the latter by contesting polls,” says Khatri.
Having covered campaigning in Savitri Nagar, Panchsheel Colony, Zamrudpur, the debutant candidate doesn’t discount winning the seat either. “For local-level betterment, the criterion is different. People want a social worker who can see to daily needs and not a tall politician,” he adds.
The seat will see another debutant contestant — Rohit Tyagi from the Nationalist Congress Party. The 26-year-old who runs a business is banking on friends from his business circles for bagging votes.