Delhi civic polls: No party upbeat of big victory

Once again the educated and affluent class of Delhi chose to stay at home and the poor folk took the extra pain to give some life to the democracy that led to increase in voting percentage by 14 to 15 percent in MCD polls. This time the polling was higher compared to 2007 corporation polls.

According to state election commission officials, “The trend shows that maximum voting percentage is in East Delhi whereas the lowest percentage is in South Delhi”.

The youths of Delhi who thronged in large numbers at Ramlila maidan during Anna fast did not turned up in great numbers. Election Commission which is boasting for the increase in percentage fails to understand why the youths did not turned up.

Leaders of both the main political parties Congress and BJP are not very upbeat and are not claiming any big victory or sweep. While talking to TSI, BJP MLA Ramesh Bidhuri expressed confidence for win in three of the four municipal wards of his Assembly constituency.

He said, “It is very difficult to read the mind of the voters but after doing extensive campaigning it appears that BJP will win North Delhi MCD and would have more seats than Congress in South Delhi  and may not do well in East Delhi MCD”.

But PWD Minister in Delhi government Rajkumar Chauhan is quite upbeat of winning all the three MCDs. He said, “Congress will win in all the three MCDs and all four seats in my Assembly constituency”.

The voters in the Muslim dominated areas were a divided lot and did not vote overwhelmingly for Congress.

Abbas Haider Rizvi from North Delhi MCD said, “Though price rise and corruption issues should not influence corporation elections but it appeared that people had this in mind while going to vote and it is because of this that Muslims who are traditional voters of Congress choose to vote against Congress and BJP. In Jafarabad constituency there was a wave in favour of an independent candidate rejecting both Congress and BJP”.

Mohd Idrees of North East Delhi said, “For the first time we saw that Muslims voted for BJP in Municipal ward of Maujpur  and it is because the candidate enjoyed good rapport with Muslims”.

Throughout the campaign Congress banked on Sheila government’s decision of trifurcatiing the MCD and 50% reservation for women, whereas BJP banked on price rise and corruption of central government.

Political experts are of the view that independents and candidates of other parties may win good number of seats and the number could touch the astonishing mark of fifty.