Delhi municipal polls, a prestige battle

By 

Chandan Prakash

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by registering the massive win in assembly elections especially in Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand, set a trend of credibility that is probably never seen in the history of Indian politics.

The party without naming Chief Minister, won 312 out of 403 (77.4 percent) seats in India’s largest state assembly in its most-populous state, increasing its vote share by 25 percentage points from the 2012 assembly elections to 39.7 percent in 2017.

As elections in five States over, the political parties in Delhi are gearing up for the upcoming Municipal Corporation polls next month. The main poll plank of all the major political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is sanitation and development in the city.

The Congress, which was decimated in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, is struggling to acquire an upper hand by wooing the slum and village population on the issues related to water, electricity and sanitation.

The BJP, which was in euphoric mood over party’s win, is mainly bothered about balancing between its women, youth and Scheduled Caste candidates in these civic polls. Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken’s single point agenda is to target the BJP and hence its entire party campaign revolves around castigating BJP. While the party is lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation, their focus remains far from the sufferings of the common man in these city corners.

For the last few months, all the major parties have been raising the problems of slums by accusing each other of neglecting the interest of people living there. Besides, the parties are garnering support by organising functions, events, campaigns, protests in these areas on regular basis.

The political parties are also planning to bank on young and women candidates. While the Congress is involving grass-root workers for the selection of candidates in the 272 wards, the AAP has readied a list of 198 candidates for the upcoming civic polls. The AAP have allotted 100 seats to women and 64 seats to the young candidates. The BJP, which has been ruling the three municipal corporations in the city for the last 10 years, is going to the people by highlighting the works and services rendered by the civic bodies in the last couple of years. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari has visited several slums with hundreds of supporters in order to woo the Poorvanchali voters.

On the other hand, the Congress’ newsletters and booklets released by prominent leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram and Jyotiraditya Sindhiya, alleged corruptions in BJP-ruled corporations and criticised BJP’s policies at the Centre. While alleging corruption in the municipal corporations, Maken had said in a Press conference recently that Delhi has come to a standstill in terms of the delivery civic services. He also pitched for starting a fixed deposit to make the civic bodies financially self-reliant, like the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

However, the party lacks the confidence when it comes to addressing the local issues. A party source said that even the rally addressed by Rahul Gandhi hardly touched local issues and failed to give any hope not only to voters but also Congress workers. One of the party workers said that his (Rahul Gandhi) speeches targeting Central Government policies have not attracted the attention of even Congress workers.

The BJP is planning to ride on Modi wave which has gained more ground after the UP and Uttarakhand results. The party is underlining development agenda and works done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The civic elections, which had so far remained a clash between the BJP and the Congress, assume greater significance this time with the entry of AAP and the Swaraj Abhiyan India into the fray.

The AAP is highlighting the “failure” of the BJP-ruled corporations — East Delhi Municipal Corporation, North Delhi Municipal Corporation and South Delhi Municipal Corporation in the past 10 years and the Congress leadership crisis in the governance of the national Capital in all the meeting and party’s rallies. The AAP also slammed BJP president’s decision to stay in slums for ten days alleging that the move was just to woo voters before civic elections. Tiwari had spent a night in a slum with a Muslim family at Sanjay Camp Jhuggi in the diplomatic enclave of Chanakyapuri, and interacted with the residents about the problems they face.

The slum-dwellers now understand the pattern of politics in election time. A month before the elections, candidates from political parties organised meetings with a bunch of residents in several localities.