Northeast Delhi: Neglected seat in a mood to punish

NEW DELHI: It's been a hectic fortnight in North East Delhi. The district—one of the most populous parliamentary constituencies in Delhi—seldom gets as many "VIPs" as it has over the past few weeks. Sitting MP and Congressman, JP Agarwal, has been camping there, away from his residence in Shahjahan Road. Manoj Tiwari, the Bhojpuri star and BJP candidate, has been spending all his time in the party office in Yamuna Vihar while JNU resident, professor Anand Kumar, who is AAP's candidate, has been virtually living in Babarpur, where the party has its office, when he is not accompanying Arvind Kejriwal around the bylanes of the constituency.

Away from the glare of these high-intensity campaigns for the Lok Sabha elections, however, residents of North East Delhi are quietly gearing up for April 10. Talk of development in the area brings out the latent anger, as residents across the district point to the woeful law and order situation, as well as the absence of basic infrastructure like water and electricity.

Home to over a thousand unauthorized colonies as well as several jhuggi clusters and resettlement colonies, the North East constituency has seen both BJP and AAP candidates highlight the lack of development. While Kumar likened it to the "backyard" of a backward region, Tiwari has been promising that all problems will be solved by the "Modi sarkar". Agarwal, meanwhile, has been touting the arrival of Delhi Metro in North East Delhi as well as the work on the Signature Bridge as his big achievements.

That the area is ready to experiment was made abundantly clear in the 2013 assembly elections. Residents here brought in BJP and AAP on seats that had for the past decade remained loyal to Congress. Of the 10 assembly seats—Burari, Timarpur, Seemapuri (SC), Rohtas Nagar, Seelampur, Ghonda, Babarpur, Gokalpur (SC), Mustafabad and Karawal Nagar—five went with BJP, with only two remaining with Congress. The rest went with AAP in 2013.

The Lok Sabha campaign reflects this. Singer-actor Tiwari wooed Poorvanchalis throughout his campaign, AAP's Kumar focused on pockets like Babarpur, Seelampur and Mustafabad, mostly Muslim-dominated. In fact, the Arvind Kejriwal roadshow in the last leg of campaigning saw the route laid through areas like Shri Ram Colony, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar and the bylanes of Ghonda: all localities that are either Muslim-dominated or unauthorized.

Throughout the campaign Congress tried to regain lost ground. Of the eight assembly seats Congress won, five have a high Muslim presence. And of these five, two—Seelampur and Mustafabad—are in the North East constituency where Muslims make up 21% of the electorate. Areas like Seemapuri, Jaffrabad, Ghonda, Mustafabad and some parts of Karawal Nagar have a strong AAP presence. Seemapuri, an erstwhile Congress bastion, is seen as a "totally" Muslim area and is home to many ragpickers and migrants from Medinipur and Malda districts of West Bengal. In 2009, it had 80% voter turnout.

Locals say the shift in Muslim votes has Congress worried. Agarwal did three padyatras in Seemapuri to revive support. Insiders, however, say Congress is unsure of Muslim support this time despite Shahi Imam Ahmad Bukhari's direction to Muslims to vote for Congress and Trinamool. "But because Narendra Modi has been named as BJP's PM candidate, a section of the community remains committed to Congress," said a party worker.

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