South Delhi Lok Sabha Constituency in Delhi is a political powerhouse renowned for its significant influence in Indian politics. The plush farmhouses on barren lands in Chhatarpur, the vast rural belt behind them, the planned neighbourhoods such as Saket and Vasant Kunj and the congested unauthorised colonies in Sangam Vihar and Palam all reflect the wide variety in demography and topography of South Delhi Parliamentary constituency which will witness a direct contest between BJP’s Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and AAP’s Sahi Ram Pehalwan who is the INDIA bloc candidate. The election is being fought on the issue of ‘Abki baar Modi Sarkar”.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the AAP and Congress have forged an alliance in Delhi which has seven Lok Sabha seats. The South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency constituted in 1966, comprises Bijwasan, Palam, Mehrauli, Chhattarpur, Deoli (SC), Ambedkar Nagar (SC), Sangam Vihar, Kalkaji, Tughlakabad and Badarpur assembly segments.
On vote share parameter, there are three major players - Gujjars, Jats and Purvanchalis. Together, according to the numbers pegged by the political parties, Jats, Gujjars and Purvanchalis make almost one-third of the total voting population in South Delhi. And in this Jat-Gujjar-Purvanchali mix, the Purvanchalis form one half, and the Gujjars and Jats taken together form another.Delimitation and immigration have affected vote bases in multiple ways. Traditionally, Badarpur, Chhatarpur, Tughlakabad, Bijwasan and parts of Mehrauli are Gurjar dominated while Jat-dominated areas are Bijwasan, Palam and parts of Deoli and Sangam Vihar. Caste has been an important factor in elections as well. For instance, Bijwasan has always had an MLA who is a Jat. In the past two decades, several villages in Chhatarpur and Badarpur have transformed from Gujjar-dominated villages to Purvanchali-dominated pockets. Some have resulted in the formation of urbanised slums such as Aya Nagar and Palam Village. The biggest unauthorised colony in Delhi such as Sangam Vihar are now a melting pot of identities. Currently, the rural belt where most such villages are located are marked by the frequest presence of posh farmhouses, some of them paving way for villages in the interiors.
Bidhuri, a seasoned politician, is currently an MLA from the Badarpur Assembly segment and the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly. Bidhuri listed the development work for Delhi done by the Modi government, including peripheral roads, Eco Park, six-lane National Highway, India Gate Tunnel, National War Memorial, Kartavya Marg, new Parliament building, and the statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at India Gate. During his election speech, Bidhuri has focused on corruption cases of Arvind Kejriwal.
BJP candidate started his political journey in 1970 as an ABVP member. He was associated with Jana Sangh till 1974 as an active member. He was the Chairman of the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation with the rank of Cabinet Minister from 1981-85. He was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of Delhi in 1993 and since then has been elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly four times. After being elected MLA for the fourth time in 2020, he was elected the Leader of the BJP Legislature Party and became the Leader of the Opposition with the rank of a cabinet minister. Bidhuri was nominated as a member of the National Executive of the BJP in 2013.
Sahi Ram Pehalwan is a two-time MLA from Tughlakabad and a Gujjar leader. Earlier, he was with the BSP and was a two-time councillor. Pehalwan was also the Deputy Mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Lack of schools, colleges, healthcare facilities, poor roads, water and drainage are among the top issues that echo across all 10 assembly segments in South Delhi constituency. But the priorities differ from place to place and, often, from one community to another in the same place.
In 2008, when delimitation was carried out for Delhi’s parliamentary constituencies, all assembly segments in erstwhile South Delhi, except Kalkaji, went to the current Lok Sabha segments of New Delhi, East Delhi and the newly formed West Delhi. The assembly constituencies that the old South Delhi seat had to part with include Janakpuri, Tilak Nagar, Hari Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Delhi Cantonment, R K Puram, Hauz Khas, Malviya Nagar and Okhla.
South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, established in 1966, is among Delhi’s seven parliamentary seats. Initially a Bharatiya Janata Party stronghold, it transitioned to Indian National Congress post-2009 delimitation. Ramesh Bidhuri, BJP’s representative, has held the Member of Parliament position since 2014. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri won the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat bagging 56.68 per cent of the votes polled. The BJP won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in 2019. In 2009, AAP’s Candidate Raghav Chadha Lost Against BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri From The South Delhi Seat.
