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Interesting battle of ballot in New Delhi

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

BSP expected to give a tough fight to the Congress and the BJP

NEW DELHI: The New Delhi parliamentary constituency with its ten Delhi Assembly segments will witness pitched battles between the Congress and the BJP candidates, but poised to give both the parties a tough fight is the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The constituency includes New Delhi, Karol Bagh (Scheduled Castes), Rajendra Nagar, Patel Nagar (SC), Moti Nagar, Delhi Cantonment, R. K. Puram, Kasturba Nagar, Greater Kailash and Malviya Nagar.

Even as all eyes are on the New Delhi seat where Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is being challenged by the BJP MLA from Saket, Vijay Jolly, an interesting battle of the ballot will also be witnessed in Greater Kailash where the BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra is opposed by former Congress leader of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi House Jintender Kumar Kochar. Former Delhi Transport Minister Rajinder Gupta, who had left the BJP and joined the BSP, is contesting on the elephant symbol here.

For the New Delhi seat, 25 candidates are in the race. A Punjabi-dominated area, this segment is also home to a sizeable population of government employees. While the Congress is keen to cash in on the bonanza announced recently by the Sixth Pay Commission that has spelt relief for the 37 per cent voters who are government employees, the BJP on the other hand has been raking up the issues of power shortage and water shortage in the VIP area.

In Greater Kailash, an affluent neighbourhood, Prof. Malhotra, a longstanding Member of Parliament from the area, is considered the “stronger candidate” compared to Mr. Kochar of the Congress. The area has a high Punjabi Khatri vote base followed by Banias, Scheduled Castes, Muslims and Brahmins.

Another government employees-dominated area, R. K. Puram, has the BJP’s Radhey Sham Sharma contesting against two-time Congress MLA Barkha Singh. Ms. Singh has won the seat in the previous two elections and is considered a front-runner in the current race. The area now includes voters from Haus Khas, which has ceased to be an Assembly seat post delimitation.

In Malviya Nagar, where the BJP won three of the four Municipal Corporation seats, Kiran Walia, a two-time Congress MLA from Haus Khas, is pitted against the BJP’s Ram Bhaj. While Ms. Walia was preferred over Delhi Health Minister Yoganand Shastri for the seat, Mr. Ram Bhaj, who is backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, too had to face opposition from within the party over his candidature.

Again a Punjabi Khatri-dominated area, Malviya Nagar has 12 per cent Bania, 10 per cent Brahmin, Muslim and reserved category voters.

Kasturba Nagar has two-time BJP MLA Susheel Choudhary pitted against the Congress’s Neeraj Basoya, an MCD councillor and a National Students’ Union of India activist. This Assembly segment will also have five independents trying their luck alongside BSP’s Satish Basoya and Samajwadi Party’s Prem Babbar. With 25 per cent Punjabi votes, the area has a 15 per cent Gujjar vote bank and 11 per cent of the voters are from reserved categories.

A keen contest is on the cards between sitting BJP MLA Puran Chand Yogi and the Congress MLA from Patel Nagar, Ramakant Goswami, for the Rajendra Nagar seat. Mr. Goswami was chief whip of the Congress in the Delhi Assembly and his candidature was backed by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Mr. Yogi on the other hand has been elected from the constituency three times and it remains to be seen if he would face any anti-incumbency factor of his own.

With a high percentage — 22 and 20 — respectively of the Scheduled Caste, Poorvanchali and Other Backward Classes voters, this Assembly segment of 1.44 lakh electorate also has a 15 per cent Punjabi vote bank.

In Delhi Cantonment, 13 independents are trying their luck alongside the sitting BJP MLA Karan Singh Tanwar and the Congress MLA from Sarojini Nagar, Ashok Ahuja. In this segment, the BJP is hoping to do an encore of the recent Delhi Cantonment Board elections. The party won five of the eight wards in those elections held after a decade. With 20 per cent Defence staff, the area has 15 per cent Punjabi voters, 16 per cent reserved category voters and 20 per cent other government employee voters.

In Moti Nagar, the SP and the BSP’s presence is likely to eat into the Congress vote bank. While the Congress has fielded Anjali Rai, two-time sitting MLA from Paharganj, the BJP is banking on its sitting MLA from the area, Subhash Sachdev, to retain the seat. Incidentally, for Ms. Rai this is a return to Moti Nagar constituency as she had lost to former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana here in 1993 and had then shifted to Paharganj.

With labour class, reserved category and jhuggi-jhonpri residents together making up for 36 per cent of the voters in the area, the SP and the BSP are both confident of walking away winners, each claiming to have the support of these crucial voters.

Patel Nagar, a reserved seat, will have Congress’s Rajesh Lilothia, Chairman of the SC/ST Welfare Board, face off against former Mayor Anita Arya of the BJP. Of the 1.62 lakh voters in the area, 23 per cent are from the reserved categories, while Poorvanchalis and OBCs make up for 24 per cent.

Karol Bagh, also a reserved seat, has sitting MLA and former Delhi Minister S. P. Ratawal of the BJP pitted against Madan Khorwal of the Congress. Having fielded Mr. Khorwal, who belongs to the reserved category, the Congress is hopeful of winning over most of the SC voters as they form 38 per cent of the electorate.

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