E-Paper
Lok Sabha elections 2019: All set for high stakes fight to capture Delhi
The chief electoral officer of Delhi had said that the total number of voters in Delhi for this election has increased by 7.8% compared to the 2014 general elections. The final number of voters may rise further as the revision of electoral rolls was still on.
A total of 13.6 million people will be eligible to vote in Delhi on May 12, the sixth phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which were announced by the Election Commission of India on Sunday. Delhi has seven parliamentary constituencies, all of which are currently held by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
With no pre-poll alliance in sight as of now, it could be a three-way fight between the state’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the BJP and the Congress. For the AAP, it would be their only second outing at the general elections, and their first after they swept to power in Delhi in 2015 assembly polls. The BJP, on the other hand, will aim to repeat its performance as they have been campaigning against the Arvind Kejriwal government. The Congress is looking to turn the tide after facing repeated reverses in consecutive elections for the assembly, Lok Sabha and the municipal corporations.
The AAP has released a list of six candidates and is yet to announce the nominee for West Delhi constituency. Neither the BJP nor the Congress has announced candidates for Delhi.
The chief electoral officer of Delhi had said that the total number of voters in Delhi for this election has increased by 7.8% compared to the 2014 general elections. The final number of voters may rise further as the revision of electoral rolls was still on.
In a press conference to announce the election schedule on Sunday, chief election commissioner Sunil Arora said candidates may file nominations between April 16 to April 23, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 26.
The contest
Experts say this election will be crucial for Delhi as the city will go for assembly polls in less than nine months. Therefore, to make a dent in the vote share of the BJP -- 46.4% in the 2014 general elections-- the AAP has been pushing for an alliance with the Congress over the past five months. Last week, the Delhi unit of the Congress, after meeting party president Rahul Gandhi, said that there would be no alliance. But a meeting between the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit has once again sparked speculation about an alliance with the AAP.
Political commentator Neerja Chowdhury said this election is going to be “chemistry vs arithmetic”. “While the BJP is using both chemistry of Modi and arithmetic, the opposition parties are relying on arithmetic. If it will be a triangular contest, the BJP, especially after the Pulwama attacks and Balakot airstrike, will benefit immensely as there will be a three-way split in votes. The anti-BJP vote will be divided between the AAP and the Congress,” she said.
But, if the AAP and the Congress come together, it could be a game-changer, Chowdhury said.
An analysis of the vote shares of the three parties by HT last week showed that the combined vote share of the AAP and the Congress would have been enough to defeat the BJP in six out of seven seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In the 2017 municipal corporations elections, the Congress polled 21.1% of the total votes, only five percentage points less than what the AAP could get. Once again, combined vote share of the AAP and the Congress was significantly higher than 36% figure of the BJP.
Key poll issues
Full statehood, housing, sealing and demolition action against commercial establishments, and the friction between the state and Central government, may be the main issues this time.
“Full statehood is the only way to end the autocracy of the Centre. It is the central theme of AAP’s mega election campaign because we feel it is the only way to speed up development work in Delhi,” said Gopal Rai, AAP’s Delhi unit convener.
The BJP plans to highlight the achievements of Modi government at the Centre and the development projects cleared by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government for Delhi such as the eastern and western peripheral expressways. The party is also wooing voters from unauthorised colonies after the Union Cabinet recently appointed a committee to recommend the process of regularising such areas. There are 1,797 unauthorised colonies in Delhi and nearly one-third of Delhi’s population lives in such pockets.
“In our campaign, we are also highlighting how the Delhi government led by Kejriwal has failed on all fronts and has tried to mislead people by creating a false narrative of being a victim. The AAP government only kept fighting unnecessarily with the Centre to cover up for the promises it could not fulfil,” said Manoj Tiwari, Delhi BJP chief.
The Congress is banking on the works done by the Sheila Dikshit government. “Development is going to be our main poll plank. Whatever the AAP is claiming credit for is done by us. The Signature Bridge is our creation. Lots of flyovers you see [in the city] were started by us,” said a Congress leader.
