Pulling off just two out of the 12 reserved Assembly constituencies in the national Capital in the previous elections, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to recapture these seats in the upcoming polls. For the first time, the party will appoint observers in each of the 70 Assembly constituencies with special focus on the SC seats. Not just that, these observers are going to be the influential leaders of the party not from Delhi, but from three States — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
Delhi has an estimated 25 lakh Dalit voters and the BJP is aware that the existing vote share in this community is not particularly in their favour. It is, in fact, the two-year old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which won nine seats in the 2013 Assembly polls, that enjoys the support of the weaker sections of the society. The BJP, on the other hand, could win only two seats — Bawana and Gokalpur. Congress retained its stronghold Sultanpur Majra.
Besides, the Delhi BJP also lacks prominent Dalit faces except North Delhi Mayor Yogender Chandolia. Thus, the party has decided to rope in big Dalit leaders from different States who would oversee the poll strategy in the reserved seats.
“The top leadership has called upon prominent leaders from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to not only campaign in SC seats, but they would also act as observers there. The reason for deciding on bringing leaders from these two States is that the city has a sizeable population of Dalit voters from Rajasthan and MP who belong to communities like Meena, Raigar, Mazhabi, Bhambi and Meghwal,” said a senior BJP leader. He added that a workshop of these observers was also conducted by the RSS Delhi unit on Wednesday.
In another strategy to win the reserved seats, the BJP will also be polarising the general category voters there. “Dalits have been the traditional vote bank of the Congress but in the last elections, a major chunk of these voters sided by the AAP. The BJP will, therefore, be wooing other voters in these constituencies which coupled with division of Dalit votes will benefit the party,” a party leader said. Eyeing the 12 seats, the BJP, so far, has already conducted two big rallies for the Valmikis and for all scheduled castes in the Capital.
There are five reserved constituencies which the BJP has never won since formation of the Delhi Assembly. These include Mangolpuri, Sultanpur Majra, Ambedkar Nagar, Deoli and Kondli. Similarly, five other seats — Patel Nagar, Madipur, Trilokpuri, Seemapuri and Gokalpur - have been won by the BJP for only once. While the BJP has won the Karol Bagh seat three times, it has captured Bawana Assembly segment twice. Further, the party is likely to field Yogendra Chandolia from the Karol Bagh seat. Chandolia was denied a ticket in 2013 polls and the subsequent lok Sabha elections.