With the emergence of a tenderfoot, the fight in Capital’s lone reserved lok Sabha seat — North-West Delhi — has taken an interesting turn. Till last elections in 2009, the battle was fought between the Congress and the BJP, driven by castes and communities. This election has a third wheel like the AAP. With barely a week left for polling in Delhi, residents have been discussing lack of infrastructure and issues plaguing the constituency. Earlier, their voting pattern used to be influenced by classes and creed.
The Congress has once again pitted sitting MP Krishna Tirath from the seat. However, BJP has fielded Udit Raj, a former IRS officer. Arvind Kejriwal-led party has reposed confidence in Mangolpuri MlA Rakhi Birla, who had defeated three-time Congress MlA Raj Kumar Chauhan.
The constituency came into existence in 2009 after delimitation. Earlier, it used to be part of Outer Delhi lok sabha seat. The constituency sharing border with Haryana represents the rural face of Delhi. Over the years, cluster villages in southern part of the city witnessed massive urbanisation and a property boom but this particular area was a blind spot for investors. According to a survey, the region does not have single public convenience for women. Even, men can be seen defecating in the open. Metro connectivity up to Mundka has addressed the issue of transportation somewhat but failed to bring desirable growth in the realty sector and socio-economic life of residents, evident in South and East Delhi.
Since the area is left wanting in civic infrastructure, transport facilities, health services and other infrastructural developments, BJP and AAP have trained their guns on sitting MP Tirath for ignoring the constituency during her tenure. Raj is promising to ensure growth of underdeveloped areas, especially rural belts to garner maximum support of the people. On the other hand, Birla is riding on corruption, inflation and communalism to attract lower and lower middle class voters. Riding on anti-incumbency, BJP may have an edge as it had also secured five seats in the last Assembly elections in 2013. North-West Delhi lok Sabha seat comprises 10 Assembly seats.
The BSP had secured 16.54 per cent votes in the earlier Assembly polls, which was 3 per cent more than MCD elections of 2012. This time the party has also nominated Basant Pawar from here which may change the political rubric. There are approximately 84 villages in which Sultanpur Majra, Mangolpur, Alipur, Bhakhtawarpur, Badli, Punjab Khor, Nagal Tharan, Bajitpur, Begampur, Bawana, Barwala, Kanjhawala, Karala, Madanpur Dabas and Nilothi are prominent. There are more than 20 JJ colonies in Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Jahangirpuri, Bawan, Shahbad Dairy, Sawda and Nangloi regions while there are hundreds of unauthorised colonies in various parts of the region. The constituency has a limited number of upscale colonies in Rohini, Prashant Vihar and Behra Enclave. The total number of voters adds up to 17.30 lakh.
Significantly, the entire North-West parliamentary constituency has 70 per cent migrants from Haryana and western UP. There are also 20 per cent Purvanchalis from eastern UP, Bihar and Jharkhand. Following restructuring of the constituency in 2008, it was made a reserved seat dominated by old inhabitants such as Jats, Dalits, Brahmins and Muslims. It was carved out from the erstwhile Outer Delhi seat, which had enjoyed the status of the largest parliamentary seat in the country with 38 lakh voters till 2004. Given the sizeable presence of traditional voters of the two main political parties, Congress and BJP usually have a close contest here. However, in the last Assembly elections, BJP fared better than Congress by securing five seats while Congress retained only two seats. Two seats were snatched by AAP as well.