As three teenagers struggle with loudspeakers loaded atop a mini truck outside a bungalow in Badarpur’s Khadda Colony, two women, one of them in a burqa and the other a hijab, briskly walks inside and make their way to the centre.
One of them fishes out a phone from her bag and hands it to a man, requesting him to click their photograph with Raghav Chadha, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Lok Sabha candidate from South Delhi. Chadha, who had organised an election campaign in Badarpur, obliges.
“He is young, educated and polite — he can bring change,” 63-year-old Anwar Malik, who clicked the photo, said.
Some residents to whom Hindustan Times spoke to, expressed concerns of water shortage, lack of connectivity and health-care facilities in the area, and how they expected better development this time.
In multiple stopovers during the rally, Chadha met residents of the locality and explained the benefits full statehood for Delhi — the AAP’s primary poll plank — could bring to healthcare, schools and colleges, transport, and basic amenities, including sewer lines, water supply, and woman safety, among others.
On reaching a madrassa, Chadha, accompanied by a dozen party men, stopped in a shed where he addressed a gathering. He said: “This is the time that the politics of hooliganism and muscle power stops and a leader who is educated and can empathise with people takes over.”
{{/usCountry}}On reaching a madrassa, Chadha, accompanied by a dozen party men, stopped in a shed where he addressed a gathering. He said: “This is the time that the politics of hooliganism and muscle power stops and a leader who is educated and can empathise with people takes over.”
{{/usCountry}}The Jaitpur area in Badarpur assembly segment has a population of Gujjars, Muslims and upper caste Hindus. But the region close to the Yamuna, known as Khadda colony, is Muslim-dominated.
While addressing the gathering, Chadha said: “The Congress has no place in the battle in South Delhi. The fight is between the BJP and the AAP. We are going to win it with a large margin. While voting, remember what the AAP has done for you in four years and what the BJP has not.”