It’s no more a contest over sanitation and garbage issues. The fight for control over Delhi’s trifurcated municipal corporation, according to a seasoned leader with several decades of political experience in the Capital, is “a battle for mini-India”.
Observers within and outside political parties say the stakes are higher for those contesting the polls than the citizens whom they wish to serve. Unprecedented turnoutAfter an unprecedented turnout in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, the upcoming civic polls on April 23 have given political parties high hopes.
While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is making its debut in the full-fledged municipal polls this year (the party had contested by-polls to 13 wards in 2016), the BJP is fighting off 10 years of anti-incumbency and the Congress trying to chart a comeback, the contenders have a lot at stake.
Elections to the municipal corporations of Delhi in 2012 were the first for the local bodies, which were created that year after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi was split into three. While turnout for the polls was at a 15-year high at 54%, the 2012 elections did not manage to bring people out to vote in the numbers that were expected. The turnout was expected to cross 60%.
Three principal contenders
While each of its three principal contenders — the AAP, the BJP and the Congress — has showcased important faces from its national leadership to the electorate at public events, even smaller parties such as the Janata Dal (United) and the Samajwadi Party have jumped into the fray and continue to undertake serious, issue-based campaigning.
From issues such as garbage collection, which was suspended by municipal workers on multiple occasions last year in retaliation to not being paid their financial dues, the political parties graduated to wooing the Purvanchali diaspora in Delhi towards the end of 2016.
However, with just weeks to go before the poll, issues of national political significance — from the effectiveness of Electronic Voting Machines, demonetisation and the BJP’s desire to “see saffron replace a white blot” that Delhi currently signifies on a map of north India — have taken precedence over local issues, which the civic bodies actually have under their jurisdiction.
'A test of things'
“This election is certainly different from others. No one is talking about actual issues related to the municipal bodies. These polls are about prestige, survival, revival and conquest depending on which political player’s perspective you look at them from,” said Professor Sanjay Kumar, Director of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
“This election to the civic bodies is being contested with the same seriousness as that of an Assembly election in Delhi. It will be a test of several things for different political parties,” said political analyst, researcher and academic Manisha Priyam.
Bhanu Joshi, a research associate at the Centre for Policy Research, said: “The functional, financial and legislative domain of the civic bodies have been considerably reduced over the years. Currently, the civic bodies have no relevant service delivery provision for the city, except for, arguably, street lighting and garbage collection. Other municipal functions like water supply, sewer management, roads, etc., have long ago been subsumed by the State government and others.”
Multiplicity of authority
Mr. Joshi pointed out a multiplicity of authority emanating from the governance structure. For instance, he said, land in Delhi is under the DDA which is controlled by the Union government and not the State government.
“To this, add the presence of a union government headed by the BJP, whose political force has routed most of those in opposition, principal of which has been the Congress. Due to this unique position of having three levels of governments — local [controlled by the BJP], State [controlled by the AAP] and the Office of the Lieutenant-General [arguably controlled by the union] — political contestation remains central to the city’s elected institutions.
It's in this light that winning an election is seen as a referendum on the current government's, in this case the AAP and the BJP, performance,” he further said.The research pointed out that winning the civic polls would lend an important narrative to both the AAP and the BJP.
“For the AAP, it's a referendum on its government and qualification to become a vehement but viable opposition. For the BJP, it's a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s persona of a non-corrupt, forward-looking and dynamic leader and the BJP as a reflection of his persona,” he added.
According to Professor Kumar, the elections results will have different, but significant, meanings for its three principal contenders.“For the Congress, after its victory in the Punjab Assembly elections, if it can manage a victory in Delhi it will mean that it is on a revival path. For the AAP, a defeat will be a big blow, not to the party’s existence and significance per se, but to its ambitions of quick expansion,” said Prof. Kumar, equating the said ambitions to “certain leaders in the AAP” who expect “rapid expansion”.
Commendable feat
“A party as new as the AAP gaining as much as 25% of the vote share in Punjab and elevating itself to the status of the single-largest party in the Opposition is commendable in its own right; but a defeat in Delhi will certainly be a negative.
It will deal a blow to its public perception and the sheer euphoria it generated among the people when it was formed,” he added.
Dr. Priyam believed that the Congress had the highest stakes involved in the elections, attributing the party’s performance in the Punjab Assembly elections to its newly sworn-in Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.
“It was not actually a win for the party which, in Delhi, has been used to the stranglehold of a particular set of leaders from the old guard. There is still hope for it if it manages to win these elections, but it will be a huge setback if it loses,” she said.
Issue-based politics
“For the AAP, it can be a chance to deliver on citizen’s issues on the plank of which it actually emerged as a political force. That is precisely what the BJP will want to destroy — issue-based politics.
The BJP will find its managerial and organisational wherewithal at test here,” Dr. Priyam added. Prof. Kumar added, “The BJP wants to finish the AAP. I believe the BJP views the AAP as its biggest rival, certainly bigger than the Congress with which it has had a historical rivalry. The reason for that are the unconventional politics of the AAP, and particularly that of Arvind Kejriwal.”
However, as far as parties such as the JD(U) and the SP are concerned, their entry into the fray will only help the chances of the BJP as all anti-BJP votes, that is those being polled in favour of the AAP and the Congress, would get divided, Prof. Kumar pointed out.Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta has argued that the forthcoming municipal elections are “no longer confined to civic issues” but have become “a fight between nationalist, patriotic and progressive forces on one hand and anti-national, fascist and anarchist forces on the other.”
Crucial for revival
Speaking to The Hindu last month, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had said “every election is important” even as senior leaders from the party, speaking on condition of anonymity, said these elections were crucial for its revival.
A senior AAP functionary said that the party would be focusing on the elections with a goal to improve governance in Delhi.
The party official said that the AAP government in Delhi had been forced into a political tussle with the BJP-ruled corporations, with governance and civic amenities being the casualty.
Referring to the constant fight over funds and the multiple strikes by municipal workers over late salaries in the past two years, the official said that the BJP had tried to blame the AAP, even though financial aid to the corporations had increased.
