Headlines
Delhi vote this week will be two-horse race
New Delhi, Feb 1
After a 49-day AAP government
and President's rule for nearly a year, Delhi will vote later this week
to elect a new administration whose control has virtually become a
two-horse contest between the BJP and the AAP.
The Congress,
which governed Delhi for 15 years and whose tally tumbled from 43 seats
to 8 in the 2013 assembly polls, has arguably been out of the running
for the 70 assembly seats since the beginning of the poll campaign. A
total of 673 candidates from various political parties are in the fray
for the Feb 7 (Saturday) polls. The results will be out Feb 10.
For
a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been on a winning
streak in other states' assembly polls after it rode to power in the
centre in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, it is a "battle of prestige". It has
been out of power since 1998 in the national capital.
For the Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP), which resigned following a 49-day stint after it
stunned the entire country by toppling the ruling Congress, winning
Delhi is a make or break of sorts.
The poll campaigning has
already reached its crescendo with the AAP and the BJP pulling out all
stops and going hammer and tongs at each other.
On the one hand,
the BJP is hard-selling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's model of
development to gain power and on the other, it is running a high-decibel
campaign to slam the AAP and its chief, Arvind Kejriwal.
By
issuing advertisements in the print and electronic media, which lampoon
Kejriwal, the BJP has made it quite evident that it sees the AAP as its
only roadblock in claiming the Delhi throne.
So much so that it
roped in Kejriwal's friend-turned-foe and former police officer Kiran
Bedi and declared her as its chief ministerial candidate. The move was
in contradiction to its earler stand of contesting under a collective
leadership.
Since women's security has also become a major poll
issue, the step was also seen as crucial to wooing women voters. There
are 13.3 million voters, of whom 5.9 million are women.
"We can't
take them (AAP) for granted like we did in the last polls," said a
senior BJP leader. He, however, said "the party will romp home as
Kejriwal has been exposed".
How serious a threat is the AAP to
the BJP is clear from the fact the BJP-led central cabinet ministers and
other stalwarts like Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan had to be brought in to campaign.
Modi has already held three poll rallies in the capital and is expected to address two more.
Besides, tackling a powerful and resourceful BJP, the AAP's other challenge is to convince voters that it won't quit again.
In
all the public meetings across the capital, which will total up to 120
by Feb 5, as an AAP source said, Kejriwal never forgets to make one
particular point: "Is bar istifa nahin denge."(Won't resign this time)".
Kejriwal
quit as Delhi chief minister last Feb 14 after failing to pass the
anti-graft Jan Lokpal bill in the assembly. President's rule was imposed
Feb 17. In the 2013 polls, the BJP had bagged 31 seats and the AAP 28.
"The
people were upset with us only because we quit the government. But we
are driving our point home in every public meeting we hold that we were
forced to resign," AAP leader Manish Sisodia told IANS.
In an
interview to IANS, Kejriwal had admitted that middle class had become
disillusioned with the party, but was now returning to the AAP's fold.
It
would be an uphill task for the Congress to regain ground. It seems
more to be a battle for survival. The party is banking on former union
minister Ajay Maken, who has been appointed as its campaign chief.
Delhi Congress unit chief and former minister Arvinder Singh Lovely not contesting reflects the low morale of the party.
A three-time cabinet minister in Sheila Dikshit's cabinet, Lovely was one of the eight MLAs who retained their seats in 2013.
In
its manifesto, the party eulogizes its achievements during its 15-year
rule and offers what largely seems to be promises already made by the
AAP - cheap power and water.
"We are reaching out to people and
telling that both the AAP and the BJP are two sides of the same coin.
AAP made a mess of Delhi in 49 days and BJP failed to do anything for
Delhi in the past seven months," Maken told IANS.
So far,
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son and party vice president Rahul
Gandhi have addressed three rallies. The party is trying to woo the
voters living in slums - a traditional vote bank which shifted to the
AAP in the last poll.
"We are aiming to get at least 12 seats," said a party insider.
Sanjay
Kumar, a fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
told IANS: "Congress retaining its seats might throw another hung
assembly in Delhi."