New Delhi: It was on Tuesday in Delhi’s Sangam Vihar that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi held a joint public rally, for the first time, nearly a year after the Congress’ 2019 Lok Sabha elections campaign.
The stage was set at the same spot where two days earlier Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar appeared together with BJP president JP Nadda for their public interaction. Several ministers from Bihar also held road shows in the area.
The Sangam Vihar assembly constituency is important for all the key contestants — AAP, Congress and BJP ally JD(U), which is fighting from this seat — for five major reasons.
First, Sangam Vihar has the most number of unauthorised colonies in the capital, which is why the regularisation of colonies is a big issue here
Second, most of the residents here are poor or fall in the lower-middle class category, making AAP’s subsidies on water and power quite vital in the area.
Third, almost one-fifth of Sangam Vihar’s population is Muslim. The BJP’s attempts to polarise voters are quite likely to be visible in this area.
Fourth, Sangam Vihar and areas around it like Deoli village, Tughlakabad and Ambedkar Nagar house a lot of migrant workers from Bihar and east UP so the Poorvanchali voters’ sentiments here are quite important and likely to be in sync with Poorvanchali voters in other parts of the city.
Fifth, water shortage and general neglect of basic amenities like roads and sewer lines has been a perennial headache for this area. This is a seat where the AAP, which wants these elections to be fought on issues of development, is on a weak wicket because the biggest problems in this area — lack of proper roads, sewer lines, potable water — continue to exist despite AAP's MLA holding the office of Delhi Jal Board's vice-chairperson.
It was around 6:30 pm that the Congress candidate from the seat, Poonam Azad, gave the stage to Priyanka Gandhi. The small DDA park was quite crowded and people who couldn’t find space inside were watching the speech on a screen installed outside.
“Mudde gaayab ho gaye hain, sirf bayanbaazi chal rahi hai. Pradhan Mantri ne abhi Dilli mein ek bhaashan diya, kya unhone rozgaar ki baat ki (issues have disappeared; only claims are being made. The Prime Minister recently delivered a speech in the capital. Did he talk about employment),” Priyanka asked.
Reflexively, a member of the audience said, “No, he hasn’t. He will never talk about these issues.”
His name was Sameer, a resident of Sangam Vihar.
“Five years ago, in Sangam Vihar, you could see a lot of factories running round the clock. Cotton, leather, lot of things used to be processed here. Half of them shut down after demonetisation and the other half after GST. I am 19-years-old and right now I should be studying. But I work all day, push a cart sometimes to support my family like many others because the sources of employment have completely dried up. Someone in my family completed his ITI training a year ago. For a year, he hunted throughout the city for a job, for merely Rs 10,000 but couldn’t get one. He’s cooling his heels at his parents’ now,” said Sameer.
A man standing close to him expressed displeasure with Sameer’s opinion.
“The Congress was also in power for 10 years. Why did they not worry about employment in their own time?” His name was Gopal Yadav. He is not a voter here and came from Bihar, but his opinions found a lot of resonance with several other members of the audience.
“Look at what they’re talking about. Rahul Gandhi in his speeches talks about China and US. What about the issues of Sangam Vihar? These are not general elections. These people need to know how to make speeches. Look, there is barely any crowd here. When Nitish Kumar and JP Nadda were here on Sunday, the crowd was even thinner. But if Modi held a rally here, the whole place would’ve come to halt. He talks about the real issues,” Yadav said. He works in a travel agency nearby.
When asked whether a Modi rally would ensure the BJP’s victory, Yadav said with a hint of disappointment, “I don’t think so. You see the AAP people have already done enough propaganda to sway away the people here.”
The AAP candidate and his chief opponent are facing each other for the third consecutive elections. But this time, SCL Gupta, who won on a BJP ticket in 2008 but lost to AAP’s Dinesh Mohaniya in 2013 and 2015 by 777 votes and 40,000 votes, respectively, is fighting on a JD(U) ticket.
AAP’s Mohaniya, who is a vice-chairperson of the Delhi Jal Board, has admirers who are pleased with the water and electricity subsidies, and detractors who haven’t yet received regular water supply.
“To me, water and power subsidies are game-changers really. Only a few years ago, I used to pay Rs 4,000 per month in peak summer season for potable water. That water used to be quite saline and if you took even one glass more than you had paid for, the private water providers would overcharge us. I don’t have to pay that much now. Same with the power supply. Most of the people here haven’t received electricity bills for the past three months. This money means a lot to us,” said Sonu.
But Ranjan Kumar who works in a leather factor nearby says, “Water hasn’t reached everyone. On the far side of Sangam Vihar, in Peepal Chowk, people still go months without regular water. Look at this main road, the entrance to Sangam Vihar. It has still not been mended, sewer lines still haven’t been repaired. Also, power and water subsidies don’t mean a lot for poor people like us. Our landlords still charge us Rs 8/unit. If we complain, they threaten to throw us out.”
There are also concerns about the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. A Muslim local said that while only Congress stood on the right side of the debate, voting for the AAP, some of whose MLAs were seen standing with the protestors, seemed to be the sensible thing to do for them.
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