Candidates in North West Delhi claim to have secured decisive mandate
New Delhi: North West Delhi constituency where polling took place on Sunday, witnessed slight fall in voter turnout. The constituency recorded around 58.99 per cent votes in comparison to 61.66 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The candidates of three major political parties, despite having a lower voting percentage this time, claimed to have secured the decisive mandate.
The voters, however, said to vote for development as the constituency is a mix of unauthorised colonies, middle class urban areas, an industrial belt and a swathe or rural areas. "While civic issues and facilities are the key issues in the urban areas of the constituency, in the rural belt, people say they need hospitals, better transport, higher education institutions, especially for girls, and lower electricity tariff for tube wells. Hence we have keeping these issues in mind," said Mahesh, a time voter from Mangol Puri area.
As far as assembly wise data is concerned Narela recorded 60.87 per cent, Badli 57.83 per cent, Rithala 58.44 per cent, Bawana 58.78 per cent, Mundaka 56.05 per cent, Kirari 58.69 per cent, Sultan Pur Majra 60.90 per cent, Nangloi Jat 54.03 per cent, Mangol Puri 63.74 per cent and Rohini 64.10 per cent votes. "There was slow but peaceful voting were witnessed in all 10 assembly constituencies. Despite the lower turn out, efforts were made to attract maximum number of voters at poling booths," said a polling office deputed at one of the booths in constituency.
The BJP has fielded popular Punjabi singer Hans Raj Hans, preferring him over the incumbent Udit Raj, who then joined the Congress a day after denying the ticket. The Congress has fielded on one of its three working presidents and two-time MLA Rajesh Lilothia while the AAP has given ticket to Gugan Singh, a former BJP MLA from Bawana assembly constituency.
The constituency of 23.7 lakh voters has a sizeable Scheduled Caste population mainly Jatav and Balmiki, roughly 22 per cent of the voter base. The villages are dominated by Jats and Brahmins, while unauthorised colonies and slums have mostly Scheduled Caste and Muslim voters. Considering the fact, the AAP candidate comes from Jatav community while BJP and Congress candidates are from Balmiki community.
"The community from which Hans Raj Hans comes has nearly 3.5 lakh votes in three assembly constituencies- Sultan Puri, Mangol Puri and Bawana and we are hopeful that we will get 95 per cent votes of this community alone. Besides this we have also get a huge support of voters especially Jatav from Bawana, a stronghold of the AAP candidate. Poor performance of AAP in Delhi and zero possibility of forming government by the Congress in Centre is the key reason of support to BJP besides Modi Wave," said Manoj ChandelNorth-West Media Co-Incharge, BJP.
The Congress candidate Rajesh Lilothia, while talking to media, said to win the election. "The people who are fed up with AAP and BJP in Delhi and Centre, desperately want to change their representative. Both the parties have miserably failed to address the issues hence we are confident of our victory. The vision of Congress party is also a factor bringing people closes to us," said Lilothia.
The AAP candidate Gugan Singh, however, claim to work scores of development related projects.
