Traffic congestion, roads key issues in Karol Bagh constituency

New Delhi: Known for its market areas, Karol Bagh is always hustling with people from different corners of the city and is a neighbourhood in Central Delhi district of the national Capital. The constituency houses some of the city's busiest and famous markets on the Desh Bandhu Gupta Road, Ajmal Khan Road, Tank Road Market and Ghaffar Market.

An SC reserved constituency, Karol Bagh has around 1.77 lakh voters, of which 96,665 are males, 80,668 females and eight are from the transgender community. The constituency has a sizeable population of Bengalis and Tamils in pockets.

The upcoming Delhi elections will see a tough fight between Aam Aadmi Party's Vishesh Ravi and BJP's Yogesh Chandoliya, while Congress' Gourav Dhanak has a small following. However, for the common man, issues will take a front seat this time. One of the largest market areas, Karol Bagh has traffic congestion and road as the key issues this upcoming Delhi election.

At the wholesale garment market known as Tank Road Market, which came into existence in the end of the 1980s, construction of roads, CCTV cameras and congestion are the issues that the shopkeepers have to deal with everyday. "The streetlights and a few CCTVs that you see here have been put by the market association only. No work has been done by the party here," said Vijay, who has a garment shop in the area. While the AAP has renominated Ravi for the third time, the BJP has once again fielded Chandoliya, who lost to Ravi in the 2015 polls.

In Tank Road market, shopkeepers had a few complaints regarding the work done. "Besides the issue of road, traffic is a menace here. Not just in Tank Road area but in Karol Bagh area as a whole, there is so much congestion we fear traveling by our own vehicles," said Vijay.

Meanwhile, a rickshaw puller, who is a resident of Karol Bagh's Ragarpura area, said work needs to be done, however people in his area were satisfied with the current party. "Jhaadu has done work for the poor. Although a poor person has to earn and eat on his own, AAP has worked on little issues," he said.

A young shopkeeper in Tank Road area, however said that there is "no free wifi" which has been promised by the AAP. "I can confidently tell you that no work of development has been done here,"

he said.

Even though people's support towards parties varied, issues of roads, traffic and development came up. "We are going to weigh our support according to the issues that parties have focussed on," said Vijay.