As the campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections reached its last leg in the city, candidates in North-West Delhi went around the constituency trying to reach out to as much of the electorate as possible.
One of the biggest constituencies in the city, the 10 Assembly segments in this lone SC reserved constituency of Delhi are a mix of rural, urban and slum areas with Dalits constituting a big 20 per cent chunk of the vote.
The BJP candidate, Udit Raj, is hoping to win over the loyalties of people from the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. “Two Congress leaders from Kirari and hundreds of AAP workers joined us on Monday as well as last week. Some days ago people from the BSP also joined us,” he claimed.
“We have around 2,000 people who have been going from door-to-door and this will continue. Other than this, we have planned road shows over the last two days. On Monday we managed to cover the whole of Rohini area,” said Dr. Raj’s campaign spokesperson, adding that they had divided and focussed on different groups like women and youth for their election campaign.
The BJP admitted that while its success was almost ensured in the rural areas, it was on shaky ground in the slums, especially in Mongolpuri ,and that they had deployed more resources to cover these areas to counter the competition from the AAP which has been aggressively campaigning on the ground there.
The Congress candidate Krishna Tirath on the other hand is focussing on covering the unauthorised colonies and rural areas.
“We have managed to cover two to four Assembly constituencies almost every day since we began campaigning. In the final few days we will be focussed on unauthorised colonies and villages,” said Ms. Tirath.
For the AAP candidate Rakhi Birla, the party volunteers have been seen distributing their trademark “Gandhi caps”. Auto-rickshaws have been displaying their posters and the ‘broom’ symbol. Ms.Birla has also been carrying on her road shows.
On the ground, people are divided between the BJP and the AAP. As for the Congress, it has been receiving only angry reactions from the people that the constituency lacks infrastructure, health care facilities and is prone to choked drains as well as inadequate water supply.
