It is a tightrope walk for Alka Lamba, who quit the Aam Aadmi Party to rejoin the Congress last year, to get her key election plank for the high-profile Chandni Chowk constituency just right.
Poke too many holes in the work done in the past five years and Ms. Lamba stands the risk of questioning her own work as an AAP legislator in the constituency.
“If my competitors ask what I have done in the past five years, I say I have done my work with sincerity. I don’t claim to have done everything, but I have done good work,” Ms. Lamba said.
‘Much work left’
She agrees that “much work is left to be done, which is why I have thrown my hat in the ring once again”.
The 44-year-old, who left AAP in September last year, will face BJP’s Suman Kumar Gupta and AAP’s Parlad Singh Sawhney.
Ms. Lamba had commanded a 49.35% vote share in the last Assembly elections.
On one of her campaign trails this week, Ms. Lamba visited Yamuna Ghat, a small residential pocket near Nigambodh Ghat.
Quick on her feet, Ms. Lamba led a small entourage of supporters through the narrow alleys to meet and greet the residents. Light rain did not slow her down.
Pension scheme
“I will carry forward the work done by Sheila Dikshit,” she told a group of women and men who had come out of their houses to greet her. She highlighted that in Delhi, the government has halted the old age pension for the past one year. One of her major poll planks is to increase the old age pension from the current ₹2,000 to ₹5,000.
“The civic bodies said they do not have money and stopped the pension. The Delhi government’s budget during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure was ₹30,000 crore, then everyone used to get their pension. Now, the budget has doubled to ₹60,000 crore yet people are deprived of their rightful pension,” she said.
Ms. Lamba was also quick to attack her former colleague and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal with whom she had a fallout following a series of differences. One of the bitter point of conflicts was AAP’s 2018 resolution to revoke former Prime Minister and Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi’s Bharat Ratna.
“Why has Mr. Kejriwal given a ticket to Mr. Sawhney, who was AAP’s opponent last election. Only to cut the votes,” she told the crowd.
“If I had the temptation for a post, I would not have resigned from AAP. I could have gone to the BJP, they have power at the Centre. But I came back to the Congress, my home, under Sonia Gandhi,” she said.
“Today, we might not have Sheila Dikshit, but her dream to increase the pension amount will be taken up by Ms. Gandhi,” she promised, while reminding the crowd about how she had helped build the sewer and water lines in the colony through her MLA fund.
Talking about changes in her campaign strategy, Ms. Lamba said: “Last time, AAP had emerged out of a movement. It has been five years since, and everyone know how these years have gone by”. “Ladne, dharne main paanch saal beet gaye (five years have gone by in fighting and protesting),” she quipped.
“The fact is Delhi’s air has in the past six years become toxic, water has failed in potability test, and inflation has hit everyone. Onion prices have gone as high as ₹200 per kg, milk prices have gone up, price of gas cylinder has gone up and there is mass unemployment,” she said.
Busy schedule
With less than 10 days left to polls, Ms. Lamba devotes 12 hours daily to reach to the 1.13 lakh registered voters in her constituency.
In the morning hours, she takes up the Chandni Chowk ward, followed by Civil Lines, and then from 6 p.m.-10 p.m.10, she campaigns at Jama Masjid.
She added that it was not correct for the AAP government to announce freebies five months before the elections. “The AAP government is spending crores of rupees on advertisement and is trying to ride the wave into the elections,” she said.
“The Delhi portrayed in multi-crore advertisements is not the real Delhi. We are struggling to inform the people about it,” she stressed.
It, however, remains to be seen if the crowd is swayed by the freebies or they take up the issues of inflation, unemployment and development, she added.
