West Delhi’s Rajouri Garden fared badly in terms of voter turnout during the by-poll on Sunday. As per the State Election Commission, the overall voting percentage stood at 46.23% compared to 72% in the previous election.
The turnout started slow across the 166 polling booths in the constituency. It, however, picked up from 21.73% at 1 p.m. to 42.89% by 5 p.m. At 6 p.m., when the voting closed, the percentage shot to 46.23.
“Both the municipal elections and the by-poll here should have been conducted on the same day. With two campaigns running side by side, many don’t know what they are voting for,” said Manjeet Kaur (64), a voter.
The by-election was scheduled only weeks before the much-awaited municipal polls, which is crucial for all the three major parties contesting this time.
Tug-of-war
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) currently rules the civic bodies, but the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has pitched major incentives such as house tax abolishment to snatch power from them.
The by-poll result is also crucial for the AAP, because the party MLA from the area, Jarnail Singh, left his position to fight against Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) bigwig Parkash Singh Badal in the Punjab Assembly elections. The abandonment of the constituency has not been taken kindly by several voters.
“Why did he have to leave his position here to try his hand in Punjab? We had put our trust in him. Everything is forgotten in politics if candidates are willing to work for the people,” said Harjas Sandhu (47), a resident of Tagore Garden.
For this election, the AAP has fielded first-timer Harjeet Singh, while veteran Manjinder Singh Sirsa is the BJP-SAD combine candidate from the area. The Congress has pitched Meenakshi Chandela, who is from a politically-established family in the constituency.
Other candidates who are in the fray are Hardeep Singh (Independent), Lalit (All India Forward Bloc), and Devinder Singh Nagi (Purvanchal Mahapanchayat).
Testing times for AAP
Delhi Congress leader Ajay Maken, who is a resident of the area, cast his vote in the first hour of the polls. He said the election result would reflect the public review of the AAP government.
“”This by-election will be a referendum on Mr. Kejriwal’s two years of work,” Mr. Maken told the media.
Since 1993, Rajouri Garden, a constituency with nearly 1.6 lakh voters, has been a Congress bastion with the exception of the last two elections, when it voted the BJP-Akali Dal combine candidate in 2013, and in 2015, when the AAP won the seat. The constituency is a mix of resettlement colonies in Raghubir Nagar, unauthorised colonies in Vishnu Garden, urban villages in Khyala, the middle-class Tagore Garden and the more posh Rajouri Garden.
Along with electronic voting machines, the reliability of which has been questioned by the AAP, voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines were used at all the polling stations.
Chief Electoral Officer Chandra Bhushan Kumar said VVPATs had to be changed in around 38 places on Sunday. The result will be declared on April 13.
