JOIN USMedieval setting searches for modern goals
This is constituency where medieval ambience merges with the modern and cosmopolitan settlements. If it accommodates villages with ancestry to Sultanate period which have survived successive urban onslaughts, it also has high middle class areas like Vasant Kunj and Saket.
While walking down from a medieval monument, you come across a cosmopolitan market with pubs and food joints.
There are world class institutions including Jawahar Lal Nehru University interspersed between old rural settlements while people in villages are still trying to balance diagonally opposed trends of getting global and retaining traditional identity.
“We have come here about 700 years ago. Probably, search of better agriculture was the main reason of migration. We live in a cosmopolitan surrounding with a rural base. It has its own problems.
If we have certain degree of autonomy, we also suffer from lack of basic amenities. The area has been suffering from acute scarcity of drinking water. Other problems are also there,” says Rajveer Panvar, a prominent social activist of Ber Sarai.
Ber Sarai, Katwaria Sarai and Lado Sarai are major areas where these villages are situated. However, issue of unauthorised colonies is one of the major issues in many parts of the constituency.
Looking back
The constituency remained a stronghold of Congress for many years till seventies. It slipped out to opposition during the anti-emergency wave of 1977.
The BJP controlled it for most of the period of eighties and nineties. Congress wrested it from BJP in 2003 and again lost it in 2013 during the strong wave of anti-incumbency against Sheila Dikshit rule.
Then speaker of Delhi Assembly and MLA of the constituency Yoganad Shastri lost and finished third.
The last Assembly elections were fought fiercely between Pravesh Sahib Singh, the son former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma and Aam Aadmi Party candidate Narinder Singh Sejwal. Sejwal had lost only by over 4000 votes.
This time, both BJP and AAP had to struggle for a better candidate. Pravesh Singh Verma left the seat as he became an MP and Sejwal left citing family problems. BJP finally chose Sarita Chaudhary, former Mayor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation and AAP settled for Naresh Yadav, who also has a BJP background.
Selection of AAP candidate became somehow murky because Chaudhary Govardhan Singh, the candidate who was earlier chosen, had number of complaints against him including that of his family members’ sending family buses for Modi’s rally in Ramlila Maidan. AAP had to cancel his candidature following the recommendation of party Lokpal.
The seat has been controlled by Jats as they have sizable votes in rural areas and are also economically affluent.
“But Muslim and Poorvanchalis (migrants from north India) also play important role. They decide the fates of candidates,” says Shahid, a local activist who is active in Mehrauli and nearby Chhatarpur constituency. He also hints at anti-incumbency against BJP as people are angry over non-performance of Municipal Corporation.
He points out to the fact that after Congress’ losing its ground, the fight to get support from these communities have become all the more important. He also says that vote of slum dwellers will also play some role. However, every one agrees that there is a keen contest between AAP and the BJP. Apart from Congress, the BSP has also fielded its candidate.