New Delhi: The densely-populated Chandni Chowk seat, the prestigious New Delhi seat which has sent stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani to the Parliament and the riot-hit Northeast Delhi—these are three of the seven seats in the Capital which will be keenly watched among the 58 seats which are going to polls in the sixth phase.
In order to put a good fight for the seven seats—which were won by the BJP in the last two terms—the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have come together in an unprecedented alliance for the first time as part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc.
Key faces such as Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal who received bail to campaign for his party, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, as well as chief ministers of half a dozen states were among those who crisscrossed across the capital asking people for votes. PM Modi, too held a rally at Delhi’s Dwarka on Wednesday.
In Chandni Chowk, the BJP dropped former union minister Dr Harsh Vardhan to make way for Praveen Khandelwal, who has been the general secretary of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), a powerful traders body.
He is pitted against Congress veteran J P Agrawal, who represented the seat in 1984, 1989 and then in 1995. Agrawal had lost the last election to Dr Vardhan, but as he is up against a trader in a region where the concerns of tradespeople take centerstage. Gandhi had started the Delhi leg of the campaign from the seat; CM Kejriwal, too, campaigned to urge AAP workers to help Agrawal.
In nearby Northeast Delhi, two Bihar-born leaders are squaring off. The BJP is fielding actor-politician Manoj Tiwari, one of the party’s key faces in Delhi, who is the only face the party repeated among the seven seats in the capital. Pitted against him is fiery Kanhaiya Kumar, who became a household name during the 2016 students protests in one of the capital’s most revered institutions – Jawaharlal Nehru University. Both leaders will vye for the Purvanchali voter—migrants from Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—who call Delhi home.
One of the most prestigious seats in Delhi is the New Delhi seat, from where the BJP has fielded Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of BJP veteran Sushma Swaraj, in the place of former union minister Meenakshi Lekhi. On the other hand, AAP has fielded former legislator Somnath Bharti from the seat where the residences of prime minister, cabinet ministers and key government officials come under.
Infrastructural issues have emerged as the key issue in the constituency, where literacy is above 75%.
While PM Modi held a rally this week, the BJP has sent out at least six chief ministers as well as two former CMs to campaign for the seat. The party has held several programmes and even reached out to residents from Northeast India living in the capital by bringing in key political figures from the region, including Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Delhi BJP leader Harish Khurana says that the party will once again sweep the capital. “We are pretty confident, and the reason is that the PM has done work to show – the Delhi-Meerut expressway, the Dhaula Kuan-Gurgaon-Dwarka road are examples. He has promised that in the next tenure he will tackle the issue of pollution; Delhi is fond of Mr Modi.”
He says that the coming together of AAP and Congress will cause no damage. “Kejriwal is blaming PM Modi for his arrest, but the people are intelligent; his ministers are in jail and he himself skipped over nine summons,” Khurana adds.
Within the I.N.D.I.A. camp, Congress and the AAP leaders held rallies in each other’s seats. Rahul Gandhi held a rally in Chandni Chowk, and on Thursday morning held two meetings. CM Kejriwal has campaigned in almost all the seats. Key I.N.D.I.A. faces like Sachin Pilot, Raghav Chadha etc have also campaigned.
Congress Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria says that the fight now is between Modi and the people. “There is a strong anti-incumbency against the BJP, and there is no division of votes on our side. I expect many people to come out and vote, and the urban voter in the capital has a deep understanding of the way the wind is blowing,” Babaria said.
Despite the bonhomie, allegations that Congress workers have not worked enough in AAP turfs have come up. “We have heard the same complaint from our workers as well, but party workers are the bone of every party, they have their style. It is true that some workers are not working so enthusiastically and that there is apathy, but we are accepting it as part of human nature,” Babaria adds.