A number of office-bearers of the Bahujan Samaj Party from the Okhla Assembly constituency, which goes to the by-polls on September 15, joined the Congress at the Chief Minister’s residence here on Wednesday.
The Congress candidate from Okhla and former Delhi Mayor Farhad Suri said almost all the BSP office-bearers from Okhla and those from the East Delhi Parliamentary constituency had come into the Congress fold. He said about 50 office-bearers had joined the party.
Mr. Suri claimed that power problems were not an issue in these by-elections and the people would be voting on the issue of development.
Okhla Assembly in-charge of BSP R.H. Ansari said the office-bearers were joining the Congress because the BSP no longer talks or thinks about “sarv samaj’’ (society in general) while on the other hand the Congress had fielded an educated candidate. The Okhla Lok Janshakti Party president, Amanutallah, was also present in support of Mr. Suri at the Chief Minister’s residence.
Ms. Dikshit exuded confidence that the Congress would do well and said the workers were busy in the field meeting the “awam’’ or common people. Holding aloft the BSP membership cards of the office-bearers who joined the Congress, she declared that she was glad about the turn of events.
The Chief Minister also denied that there were differences with Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president J.P. Agarwal because of which he was not present at the event. “It is not so. They have just come and so I called you (the media).”
As for the Nationalist Congress Party candidate Ramvir Singh Bidhuri who quit the Congress and went back to NCP on the eve of the last date of filing of nominations, Ms. Dikshit said he had changed the party seven times and she need not say anything more.
She also evaded questions about former MLA and Rajya Sabha MP Pervez Hashmi not campaigning for Mr. Suri. “This question should be posed to Mr. Hashmi instead,” she quipped.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bidhuri intensified his campaign in the Jasola Vihar area of the constituency. Himself a resident of Jasola Vihar, he told the residents that if elected he would press hard for supplying Ganga water to the area. “This would be done within two months,’’ he declared.
Besides, he said, construction of the proposed by-pass linking Maharani Bagh with Ballabhgarh would be revived to avoid traffic jams on Kalindi Kunj Road. Simultaneously, widening and dense carpeting of roads and beautification and development of parks would be undertaken.
The election to this constituency has turned into an interesting contest as there are five major candidates in the fray. While the Bahujan Samaj Party had fielded its Delhi unit president Brahm Singh Bidhuri, who many believe would cut into the NCP candidate’s traditional Gujjar votes, the BJP has fielded a Muslim candidate in Irfan Ahmed. Asif Mohammad of the Rashtriya Janata Dal is another strong contender as he was second behind Mr. Hashmi in the Assembly elections in 2008 and had lost by around 500 votes after leading by over 5,000 at one juncture.
