New Delhi: As the general elections advance into their sixth or penultimate stage, the seven Lok Sabha seats within the national capital have garnered significant attention. The ruling BJP at the Centre aspires for another comprehensive triumph, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is determined to secure its inaugural Lok Sabha representation from Delhi.
In both the 2014 and 2019 general elections, the BJP seized all seven seats in the national capital. Conversely, the AAP, despite governing Delhi since 2015 and briefly in 2013 for 49 days, failed to clinch any seats in the Lower House of Parliament. This election cycle, however, sees the AAP and the Congress contesting as allies within the INDIA bloc, with the former fielding candidates for four seats and the latter for three.
The alliance arrangement also includes the AAP contesting one seat in Haryana and two in BJP-dominated Gujarat. In AAP-governed Punjab, the two parties agreed to a friendly contest. In Delhi, the AAP, led by Arvind Kejriwal, is contesting East Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi, and New Delhi. The Congress, meanwhile, has put forth candidates in North-East Delhi, North-West Delhi, and Chandni Chowk.
AAP’s candidates are Kuldeep Kumar for East Delhi, Sahiram Pehalwan for South Delhi, Mahabal Mishra for West Delhi, and Somnath Bharti for New Delhi. The Congress candidates include Udit Raj for the North-West Delhi reserved SC seat, Jai Prakash Agarwal for Chandni Chowk, and former JNU Student’s Union President Kanhaiya Kumar for North-East Delhi.
The BJP, having swept the 2019 polls in the national capital, replaced six of its seven MPs in Delhi this election. Actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari, the incumbent MP from North-East Delhi, is the only one retained. The six new BJP candidates are Praveen Khandelwal for Chandni Chowk, Harsh Deep Malhotra for East Delhi, Yogender Chandolia for North-West Delhi, Ramvir Singh Bhiduri for South Delhi, Kamaljeet Singh Sehrawat for West Delhi, and Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of the late BJP stalwart Sushma Swaraj, for New Delhi.
A seismic shift occurred just before the elections when the AAP national convenor was detained following extensive questioning by an ED team at his residence concerning the Delhi excise policy case. This development dealt a severe blow to the ruling party in the capital, with prominent figures like Sanjay Singh, Manish Sisodia, and Satyendar Jain already imprisoned on corruption charges.
Even as the AAP celebrated the Supreme Court’s grant of interim bail to Kejriwal in the liquor policy case, a significant boost amid Lok Sabha poll campaigning, the ED filed a chargesheet naming the AAP as an accused. Reports suggest this is the first instance of a political party being implicated in an alleged corruption case in the country.
Allegations of irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and expired medicines at the flagship mohalla clinics, key to the party’s accomplishments, further fueled the BJP’s attacks. Despite this, the AAP received a major campaign boost with the apex court granting interim bail to Kejriwal till June 1.
Since his release from Tihar jail, where he was held for over a month, Kejriwal has reinvigorated his party’s campaign, previously led by his wife Suntia Kejriwal. Alongside leading roadshows and public meetings in Delhi for both AAP and Congress candidates, Kejriwal has held rallies in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Punjab.
However, the Swati Maliwal assault case soon emerged as another obstacle for the AAP. Days after Kejriwal’s release and weeks before voting in Delhi, the AAP Rajya Sabha MP alleged assault at the CM’s residence by his former aide Bibhav Kumar. Maliwal, the former Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson, claimed to have been ‘kicked’, ‘slapped’, and ‘dragged around’ at the CM’s Civil Lines residence, prompting the BJP to attack the AAP over its inconsistent stance after initially acknowledging the assault and promising strict action.
In a dramatic reversal, senior AAP leader Atishi dismissed Maliwal’s assault allegations against the CM’s former principal secretary Bibhav Kumar, labeling Maliwal as a ‘BJP agent.’ In response to Maliwal’s complaint to Delhi Police, Bibhav filed a counter-complaint, accusing her of unauthorized entry into the CM’s residence and verbal abuse.
Despite Bibhav’s readiness to cooperate with the investigation, he was arrested and remanded to five days in police custody. The police recreated the scene at Kejriwal’s residence, scrutinizing CCTV footage.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe the Maliwal case. As the political climate in the national capital intensifies, rivaling the searing heatwave, and the campaign rhetoric escalates with the liquor policy case and the Maliwal episode dominating discourse, a fiercely contested election looms. While the BJP aims for a repeat victory of all seven seats, INDIA partners AAP and Congress are poised for significant electoral gains in the national capital.