North-East constituency, a stronghold of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and erstwhile Jan Sangh since its formation in 1966, is headed for an interesting but tough battle between the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Manoj Tiwari of the BJP and former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. AAP's Dilip Pandey is also in the fray but in the absence of the alliance between AAP and Congress, the battle of supremacy in this parliamentary seat has shifted to Congress and BJP. The constituency boasts of a sizeable number of Hindu and Muslim votes. The Purvanchalis also have a formidable presence with 40 per cent voters.
Tiwari, the Bhojpuri film star, commands a strong following among Purvanchali voters and had won comfortably in 2014. However, with the arrival of Sheila Dikshit, the contest has queered the pitch for the Delhi State BJP president.
In some of the Assembly constituencies such as Seelampur, Babarpur and Mustafabad, Hindu voters appear to be inclined towards the BJP but Muslim voters are divided as to whom they should support. However, these voters in Timarpur, Burari and Gokalpur favoured AAP, citing the development works carried out by the party in the area but they said they will decide a day before the election about to whom they are going to support.
The constituency has a large population of Muslims and after that comes Brahmin in the area and Purvanchalies. AAP and Congress largely depend on similar vote bases - Muslims, Dalits and those living in unauthorized colonies and JJ clusters among others. It is the same vote bank which propelled AAP to power with an unprecedented mandate in the 2015 Delhi assembly elections but with alliance between the two failed to materialized, it may divide the votes between the AAP and Congress which will benefit Manoj Tiwari. Though all the parties have termed election as non- caste but in the fray to win battle AAP has also fielded Dilip Pandey who is also from Purvanchal.
Manoj Tiwari in 2014 had defeated Aam Aadmi Party's Anand Kumar by around 1.5 lakh votes from the constituency, is this time indulged in a triangular contest. He is pitted against Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit and former Delhi AAP convener Dilip Pandey in the poll battle on the seat.
The BJP candidate is riding on the support of the Purvanchalis voters which is more than 40 per cent in this constituency. Further division of Muslim votes and those living in juggi clusters will directly benefit BJP. Whereas the AAP candidate Pandey also have a share of the purvanchalies votes in the area votes. Whereas, Sheila Dikshit's entry into fray has made the fight triangular. According to political pundits, the seat will witness triangular fight even after there is vote division, the Congress core voters which had voted AAP to be in power in 2013 assembly election will see a share back to Congress.
"This constituency is facing political apathy from years whether it is Congress or the BJP, nothing has been done by anyone to ensure basic amenities such as water, electricity and roads," said Rahul Tyagi, who runs a stationary shop in Burari, adding that in compare to others the AAP has done many things including constructing school buildings and ensuring over all development in the area.
The constituency comprises 10 Assembly segments — Burari, Timarpur, Seemapuri, Rohtas Nagar, Seelampur, Ghonda, Babarpur, Gokalpur, Mustafabad and Karawal Nagar and has 19,57,707 number of voters in which 40 per cent voters are Poorvanchalis. Interestingly, out of the ten Assembly seats, nine has AAP MLAs.
Seelampur, Babarpur and Mustafabad have sizeable Muslim population. AAP and Congress candidates have launched a massive door to door contact to lure voters to cast their votes in their favour. The Pioneer visited these areas to read the mood of the voters and found that poorvanchalis are sure of to whom they want to win the seat but others were waiting till the last to clear the air over selection of candidate to cast their vote.
Faizan Ahmed, a resident of Mustafabad, said that the Sheila Dikshit has done lots of development works in Delhi and she is the favourite in the area. "AAP is good but its candidate cannot defeat BJP candidate. This is a national election and not an Assembly one. So, the matter is related to the nation only. Thinking that the Congress candidate can give a close fight. So, we have decided to vote for Congress," he said.
Meanwhile, Dikshit alleged, "Broken roads, the dirty, stinking and polluted lanes and by-lanes, houses constructed in a haphazard manner and the mounds of garbage, piling up everywhere, give it the look of a forsaken land in the back and beyond the country, and not a Lok Sabha seat in the national Capital".