The BJP won the recent byelection to Rajouri Garden assembly seat handsomely and the party believes the upcoming polls will pave the way for success in the general election in 2019
BJP has fielded fresh faces led by Purvanchali actor and Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari for the Delhi civic polls.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Municipal Corporation elections is not just a civic body poll this time. It’s a battle of prestige and though BJP is upbeat about retaining power after its success in recent assembly elections, its going out of the way to ensure it.
The traditional two-way contest between Congress and BJP has another challenger in Aam Aadmi Party, which is in power in Delhi, along with regional parties such as JDU and RJD, and Yogendra Yadav’s Swaraj Abhiyan.
In 2012, when the municipal corporation was divided into three (East Delhi Municipal Corporation, North Delhi Municipal Corporation and South Delhi Municipal Corporation), BJP won a majority in the north and the east, and was the largest party in the south. Congress had trailed in all three and AAP was not in the picture at the time.
In the backdrop of the civic polls in Maharashtra and Chandigarh, and panchayat elections held in Odisha earlier this year, all three of which have strengthened BJP, the MCD polls in Delhi have assumed greater importance for the party which lost assembly election in 2015 to AAP, winning just three out of 70 seats.
The BJP won the recent byelection to Rajouri Garden assembly seat handsomely, though, and the party believes the upcoming polls will pave the way for success in the general election in 2019, followed by the assembly polls the next year.
Apart from fielding an array of union ministers and BJP leaders such as Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Uma Bharti as its star campaigners carrying out ‘Vijay Rath Yatras’ and public rallies, the party that was battling anti-incumbency decided not to give tickets to its 153 sitting councillors and field only fresh faces led by Purvanchali actor and Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari.
AAP is seen as fighting to retain political relevance after the setback in Punjab and Goa assembly elections. With its candidate losing his deposit in the Rajouri Garden by-election, the civic elections have become a litmus test for the party that was catapulted to political prominence after sweeping the capital in 2015 assembly election.
Congress, in contrast, is buoyed by its success in Punjab and the increase in its vote share in Rajouri Garden by-election. It is looking to get its foothold back in the capital, where it was uprooted by AAP and BJP in the 2014 LS election and the state polls the next year. Pinning its hopes on AAP fading in Delhi, the party under Ajay Maken is looking to revive its vote share among Muslims, Dalits and migrants residing in unauthorised colonies that had gone to the AAP in the 2015 election.
ISSUES Garbage disposal, sanitation and corruption in the municipal corporations are the main issues in the civic polls. While AAP has promised to make Delhi free of dengue and chikungunya in next three years, Congress has come up with action plans on tackling overburdened landfill sites. BJP has promised to set up five waste-to-energy conversion plans in the city.
FREE BIJLI-PAANI & HOUSE TAX After offering a waiver in electricity and water bills, as promised in the assembly polls, AAP has promised to waive house tax on residential properties and extend the subsidy on electricity bills to tenants. Even as 26-30% of revenue earned by the three municipal corporations comes from property taxes, the move is seen as a strategy to appeal to middle-class property owners. While BJP objected to this, the party has promised to bring in no new taxes this time.
CAMPAIGNING However, with stakes high for all parties, their campaigns have been mainly directed against each other. While the BJP categorically trained its guns at AAP on the basis of the controversial Shungu Committee report alleging corruption and nepotism in the functioning of AAP, Kejriwal has been attacking the BJP-led MCD over corruption and recently termed it as the “most corrupt” department in Delhi. With both the state and central governments battling it out over finances for the MCD, Congress has been pitching its campaign on making MCD financially self-sufficient.
In a bid to cash in on Modi’s popularity, BJP has deployed Union ministers such as Venkaiah Naidu and Smriti Irani, and MPs Hema Malini and Uma Bharti, to campaign across Delhi and promote central government schemes. The government scheme of distribution of free LED lights to save electricity is one such policy.
PURVANCHALI FACTOR Due to migration over the past decades, Purvanchalis now account for nearly one-third of the city’s 2 crore-plus population and the vote is now seen as crucial to the city’s politics. All major parties, including AAP and BJP, claim to have fielded more than 10% Purvanchalis across 272 municipal wards for these polls.
Congress, which earlier enjoyed support of this group, claims to have fielded more than 50 candidates from the community this year, the highest among all parties. AAP had fielded 11 Purvanchali candidates in the 2015 assembly election, a decision seen as key to its victory then.
