Rajinder Nagar goes to polls today

Rajindra Nagar, the sole assembly seat where assembly election was countermanded following the death of Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and sitting MLA PC Yogi, is going to poll, reports Moushumi Das Gupta.

Rajindra Nagar, the sole assembly seat where assembly election was countermanded following the death of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and sitting MLA PC Yogi, is going to poll on Saturday. The result to this seat would be declared on December 15.

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The sitting MLA allegedly committed suicide on November 16, barely two weeks before Delhi went to poll on November 29.

A Punjabi dominated seat with 15 per cent voters from the community, Rajindra Nagar is traditionally considered a BJP stronghold.

Yogi who was the sitting MLA had won thrice from this seat. For BJP, the death of the veteran leader had come as a big blow.

He was one of the more experienced leaders and the party had reposed faith in him by given a ticket for the fourth consecutive time from the same seat.

But political experts believe that the Congress’s resounding victory in 42 of the 69 assembly seats recently might impact the poll outcome in this constituency.

“There is a Congress wave in the city which will go in Goswami’s favour. After our thumping victory in the assembly elections, even party workers are very enthused and are working round the clock to ensure our victory,” said J.P. Aggarwal, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president.

Unlike BJP, which named Yogi from this assembly seat in its first list itself, the Congress had faced stiff resistance from its own partymen before it finally decided on sitting MLA from Patel Nagar Ramakant Goswami’s candidature from the seat.

BJP leaders on the other hand are banking on the sympathy wave following the death of the sitting MLA. The party had fielded Yogi’s wife Asha from the seat.

“We have a tangible reason to believe that my mother would win from this seat. My father had toiled hard for the development of this constituency. He knew most of the people in the area personally. Because of him, my mother was also in touch with the people of the constituency,” said Yogi’s son Rajeev who is managing her mother’s campaign.

Besides the Congress and BJP, the other political parties in the fray include Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party.
The Rajendra Nagar assembly seat has 1, 37, 652 voters of which 5,455 are first timers.