India: Stage set for polls in Delhi city

NEW DELHI, India

(AA) - The stage is set for a poll battle in India’s national capital city of Delhi on Saturday, with the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) pitted fiercely against country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The counting of votes will be taken up on Feb. 11 and the result will be also declared on the same day. Over the past few days, protests by women against recently enacted citizenship law at the South Delhi locality of Shaheen Bagh have become a major poll issue, sidestepping the issues related to development.

Launched just six years ago, the AAP is banking on localized issues, reminding voters its achievements on introducing efficient garbage collection, reducing electricity bills, providing medical treatment and drinking water, the BJP is angrily attacking anti-citizenship law protests.

The AAP was a unique experiment, when different civil society organizations, who had launched a campaign against corruption came together to form a political party. It succeeded in its first attempt while contesting in Delhi, but failed to expand its base to other provinces.

When the senior leader of the AAP and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia extended support to the protesters, who are mostly Muslims, the BJP got an issue. Almost all BJP leaders have started to weave the entire electoral campaign around the narrative of nationalism.

The BJP is leaving nothing to chance to win a majority in the 70-member assembly. Not only Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are leading the campaign, but the party has also drafted 100 MPs and 11 chief ministers to entice voters in Delhi.

According to Sanjay Kumar, the director of the Center for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), the BJP had no other option. The CSDS researches poling patterns, social sciences, and humanities.

"The BJP has been out of power in Delhi for the last 22 years. In such a situation, party leaders had nothing to show for their work and the ongoing protest at Shaheen Bagh came to an issue that they capitalized on," Kumar told Anadolu Agency.


BJP projecting Kejriwal anti-Hindu

The BJP leaders are projecting Kejriwal as anti-Hindu, anti-national and supporter of Muslims, said Sanjay Kumar. But Kejriwal is blaming the BJP for not deliberately removing the protesters so that the sit-in could be used politically.

In Delhi city, law enforcement comes directly under the central government under the BJP. The BJP has also not announced any chief ministerial candidate. It is banking on the charisma of Modi to garner votes.

During the last assembly elections conducted in 2015, the BJP secured only three seats, while the AAP managed to win 67 out of 70 seats.

Muslims comprise 13% of Delhi’s total 13.3 million voters, wielding influence in five assembly segments of Ballimaran, Matia Mahal, Mustafabad, Okhla and Seelampur. AAP has fielded all Muslim candidates on these seats. The BJP doesn’t have a single Muslim candidate in the elections. Its leaders are hopeful that the Muslim vote will get divided between AAP and another secular party Congress and benefit them electorally.

The Congress has also six Muslims candidates. Ironically, the party that ruled the city for over 15 years till 2015 is nowhere in the fight.

The Muslims of Delhi are largely favoring AAP. Rashid Qureshi, a resident of Dwarka, believes that Arvind Kejriwal should be given another chance.
"I think AAP has done well. You cannot expect 100 percent from anyone," he said. Another resident Mohammad Anwar from Okhla area said the AAP government did a lot of development work.