Cong faces tough anti-incumbency wave for West Delhi Lok Sabha seat

The West Delhi parliamentary constituency looks set for a two-cornered contest between AAP and BJP. It seems that not much has changed since the assembly elections last year, where BJP bagged five seats, followed by AAP with four and one to Shiromani Akali Dal.

Voting went peacefully in West Delhi constituency that comprises a mix of Jats, Sikhs and Purvanchali voters in large numbers. The constituency witnessed a record turnout of around 65.69 per cent. Polling even continued till 8 pm at some booths across West Delhi.

While the electorate discussed options of voting for parties, there were a few takers for ‘none of the above’ (NOTA) as well.

‘I have voted thrice in various elections and I never vote for any particular party. I rather chose to vote for the candidate. I don’t find any of the candidates worth voting. Therefore, I’ll vote NOTA’, said 22 year old Sridhar Vignesh, a resident of Dwarka.

West Delhi, the second largest constituency in Delhi in terms of number of votes with around 19 lakh voters, is currently represented by Congress MP Mahabal Mishra, a strong Purvanchali leader in Delhi.

Mishra, who has also been a two-time MLA, defeated Jagdish Mukhi of BJP by 1,29,000 votes in 2009 Lok Sabha polls. However, he is battling huge anti-incumbency wave against Congress. In the Delhi assembly elections last year, the Congress could only manage to secure 23 per cent votes, while the BJP and AAP polled 36 per cent and 31 per cent, respectively.

Parvesh Verma of BJP, son of former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, is looking to ride on the Modi wave and the legacy of his father, who was a strong Jat leader. He also has the support of large rural voters in the constituency, which he claims are part of his core vote bank.

The other candidate in the fray AAP’s Jarnail Singh, famous for throwing shoe at P Chidambaram. He will benefit from the huge proportion of Sikh votes in the constituency.  Sikhs and Punjabis constitutes around 16-18 per cent of the total electorate.