This year, like previous times, water crisis remains the major poll plank of all political parties. Five (Sangam Vihar, Deoli, Ambedkar Nagar, Palam and Bijwasan) out of the 10 Assembly segments under South Delhi do not have water pipelines and a population of over 8 lakh in these areas has to depend on water tankers to meet their daily needs.
This has given the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party opportunity to gain political scores over the Congress whose sitting MP Ramesh Kumar is facing an unprecedented anti-incumbency. The voters of the area charge Kumar of being indifferent to their miseries, which adds to his troubles in the April 10 elections. If we take into account the dismal performance of the Congress in the 2013 Delhi Assembly polls, the party stands nowhere in the contest this time. In the Assembly polls, the Congress ended up losing all 10 seats in South Delhi, including its pocket boroughs of Ambedkar Nagar and Mehrauli. The BJP occupied seven while AAP won three seats in the Assembly polls.
Having over 16.42 lakh voters, majority of who belong to rural communities, fight for the South Delhi seat is largely going to be on the plank of ‘civic issues’. A mesh of villages, unauthorised colonies and urban villages; problems in this region have not only been persistent but they also have been left
widely unattended in the past. Perennially plagued by acute shortage of water, residents have been left distraught and helpless.
The saga of woes for inhabitants of this once-posh constituency does not end here. On visiting the region, one is compelled to notice that the entire constituency does not have a single Government hospital. Even Government colleges and schools are not enough to cater to the increasing number of children here. Besides, residents, a large number of who are women and children, spend their lives amidst filth with garbage strewn all over. Excessive construction of houses and jhuggis standing along potholed roads has left little space for fresh air in the form of parks and greenery. In all segments, the South Delhi constituency is far from being developed.
The South Delhi Parliamentary constituency comprises the Assembly segments of Bijwasan, Palam, Mehrauli, Chhatarpur, Deoli, Ambedkar Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Kalkaji, Tughlaqabad and Badarpur. Of over 50 villages in the constituency, 18 are dominated by Jats, 12 by Gujjars and five by the Yadavs. With a largely rural base, the constituency has a
dominant OBC population of around 31.64 per cent. The Scheduled Castes, Gujjars, Jats and Yadavs too play a significant role in this part of the city. It is for this reason that the Congress and the AAP have fielded Jat leaders from this seat, whereas the BJP has reinstated its Gujjar leader and MlA from Tughlaqabad Ramesh Bidhuri.
The AAP has entered into the fray as a third force with a base in villages and unauthorised colonies like Sangam Vihar, Ambedkar Nagar and Deoli, the seats it won during the Delhi Assembly elections. However, post their 49-day stint in governance, the support for AAP is likely to dwindle since many are of the opinion that ‘the party shied away from its responsibilities.’ Colonel Devender Kumar Sehrawat is AAP’s candidate from here. Relying on the charisma of Sajjan Kumar, the Congress has once again preferred to field its sitting MP and his brother, Ramesh Kumar. Having defeated Bidhuri with over 93,000 votes in the previous elections, Ramesh believes to gain a comfortable victory this time as well. The BJP is hopeful to win this seat as it believes votes from the Jat population will be split between the Congress and the AAP.
