Congress set to spring a surprise or two in the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi

Delhi, like a pendulum, has swung between the Congress and BJP in all earlier elections. But with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the fray for the seven Lok Sabha seats for the first time, the election appears on paper to be loaded in favour of the two ruling parties, AAP in the state and BJP at the Centre.

While AAP is seeking a voice in Parliament to fight against what it complains is step-motherly treatment of Delhi by the Centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party is calling upon voters to strengthen the hands of Narendra Modi and on nationalism. Its performance in the municipalities that the party controls is clearly not an issue.

There is consensus that a Congress-AAP alliance in Delhi would have swept all the seven seats. But negotiations between the two parties continued for too long and while each party continues to blame the other for the failure, there is agreement that both stand to lose and the BJP is likely to be the beneficiary by default.

But can the BJP sweep the election and bag all the seven seats in Delhi? The prospect looks doubtful as there is considerable resentment against incumbent MPs of the BJP. And although BJP dropped two of its sitting MPS, Mahesh Girii from the Art of Living Foundation and Dalit face Udit Raj, replacing them with celebrity crowd pullers cricketer Gautam Gambhir and sufi singer Hans Raj Hans, the other five sitting MPs seem to be having a torrid time.

The last five years have seen considerable erosion in the support of BJP as well as AAP. Demonetisation, GST and sealing commercial premises in residential areas on orders of the court have turned a section of the trading community against BJP. But the party hopes to neutralise the loss with middle class voters and a section of the youth, who had supported AAP in the Assembly election but who, BJP believes, are now ready to back it.

For the first time in many years Congress in Delhi is the dark horse. It is handicapped by the fact that it has been out of power in the state and at the Centre. It has no representation either in the Assembly or in the Lok Sabha from Delhi. And it does not control the municipal bodies either. But the day before the election, Congress appears set to spring a surprise or two. It polled 25% votes in the MCD election, up from 9% vote share in the Assembly election in 2015. It also did well in the DUSU election and the party appears in a better shape than at any time in the last five years. Thus it appears ready to spring a surprise or two.

Four of the seven candidates fielded by Congress have been DPCC chiefs, namely Jai Prakash Agrawal (Chandni Chowk), Sheila Dikshit (North East), Arvinder Singh Lovely (East) and Ajay Maken (New Delhi). The other three seats were entrusted to youth icon and olypian boxer Vijender Singh (South Delhi), Delhi’s Lalu Prasad and a prominent poorvanchali face Mahabal Mishra and young Dalit face Rajesh Lilothia( North West reserved constituency).

Congress also kept the caste combination in mind while selecting the candidates as Sheila Dixit, a Brahimn, Maken a Punjabi, Vijender Singh a Jat, Arvinder Singh Lovely a Sikh, Mahabal Mishra a Poorvanchali, Jaiprakash Agrawal a Vaish and Rajesh Liolothia a Dalit.

AAP has put up Atishi Marlena from East Delhi, Dilip Pandey from North East, Raghav Chadha from South, Balbir Singh Jhakar from West, Brijesh goel from New Delhi, Gugan Sing from North West and Pankaj gupta from Chandni Chowk.

With anti-incumbency hurting the two major players, BJP and AAP, and the Congress reviving at the national level and with former chief minister and DPCC chief Sheila Dixit spearheading the Congress’ campaign, the election in Delhi appears closer than ever.