The political fortunes of many party heavyweights from both the Congress and the BJP, who earlier wielded clout in their Assemblies in either south or outer Delhi parliamentary constituencies, are set to be defined in the upcoming Assembly elections. Following delimitation in 2008, a new parliamentary constituency — West Delhi — has been carved out from the now deleted outer Delhi and existing South Delhi constituencies.
Though West Delhi areas have traditionally been habitat of the Punjabi and Khatri voters, in its new avatar would also include —traditional Delhi dehat voters, the residents of new housing societies in Dwarka and many migrant voters in over 100 unauthorised colonies — severely denting its exclusive Punjabi profile. Others include many resettlement colonies who are traditionally Congress voters.
Delimitation has resulted in the addition of old seats like Janakpuri, Hari Nagar, Tilak Nagar from south Delhi and Madipur, Najafgarh from Outer Delhi. Also, four completely new Assembly seats — Uttam Nagar, Vikaspuri, Matiala and Dwarka — have come into existence and are part of this new constituency. Comprising both rural and urban areas, the 10 Assembly segments falling in the West Delhi parliamentary constituency will see a battle of attrition between the Congress and the BJP, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with the BSP are likely to play a major role in the results of some of the constituencies. Assembly seats under West Delhi lok Sabha constituency include Dwarka, Matiala, Najafgarh, Uttam Nagar, Vikas Puri, Janak Puri, Tilak Nagar, Hari Nagar, Madipur and Rajouri Garden. After the delimitation of Assembly boundaries, BJP is likely to have an edge over Congress in Janakpuri, Hari Nagar and Tilak Nagar constituencies. The constituency comprises 70 per cent areas of outer Delhi and 30 per cent of south Delhi. With a total 1,748 polling stations, numbers of voters add up to 1,81,2,564 in the area.
The West Delhi parliamentary constituency has a large number of unauthorised colonies like Dharampura, Najafgarh Park Colony, Yadav Nagar, New Roushanpura, Roushan Vihar, Vinobha Enclave, Sitapuri, Mahindra Park, Janta Enclave, Jeevan Park, Raja Puri, Subhash Park, Subhash Park Extension, Mohan Garden, Prem Vihar, Durga Vihar, Mithila Vihar, Shivram Park, Mansa Ram Park, Suraksha Vihar, Vijay Vihar, Roshan Mandi, Kishan Vihar, Swarn Park, Ugrasen Park, Rana Park Extension, Bhagat Enclave, Vikas Enclave, Prashant Enclave, Shokeen Colony, Shiv Puri, Pohtash Nagar, Mahindra Park, Vikas Vihar, Deep Enclave, Nanda Block, Sewak Park Extension, Rajpuri Vikas Park and Vijay Nagar.
As of now, the BJP has won Janakpuri, Dwarka, Hari Nagar and Tilak Nagar Assembly seats while the Congress won the Assembly seats in Rajouri Garden, Matiala, Najafgarh, Vikaspuri, Uttam Nagar and Madipur in 2008 Assembly polls.
But as per records, price rise, sanitation, inflated power tariff, water scarcity, poor transportation system are the failure of these Congress-led constituencies.
Residents are not happy with their representatives, whether they are legislators or Municipal Councillors in the West Delhi area, which lacks development.