Promising a turnaround: Jagdish Mukhi (66)
The affable “professor sahab” of Janak Puri DDA Colony has made winning a habit by remaining the unvanquished MLA from this area for 30 years. He found his winning formula long ago, Avishek Dastidar reports.
The affable “professor sahab” of Janak Puri DDA Colony has made winning a habit by remaining the unvanquished MLA from this area for 30 years. He found his winning formula long ago.
All along, he showcased the DDA-made prim and proper colonies of Janak Puri as the template of his development work to draw votes from the ever-growing not-so-privileged colonies.
It worked, and that’s why he is following the same model for this year’s Lok Sabha poll campaign too. Only this time, since it is a larger audience, Mukhi is promising to turn West Delhi into the new “South Delhi”.
“There are areas which do not seem like the national capital thanks to the absence of development work by Congress. I will turn the tide for them,” he said.
Former Finance Minister at Delhi’s BJP government and a Leader of Opposition at Delhi Assembly for 10 years, Mukhi is a big name in West Delhi. But politics was never in his life’s agenda.
“The excesses of Emergency, when all the male members of my family were behind bars, pushed me into politics. Otherwise, I was happy teaching my students,” he said.
Mukhi is highlighting national issues. “Due to the faulty policies of the Central government, two crore people have lost their jobs,” he said.
“There is the constant agony of price-rise. No one in the government is willing to own up to price-rise, which shows how Congress leaders are not attached to the ground realities,” he said, adding, “And add to that the threat of terror attacks,” he said.
To take potshots at the city government, he said: “The Delhi government is directing all its money to develop South and Central Delhi, ignoring the West.” He even highlighted law and order problems.