NEW DELHI: It was to be a closely contested seat in the newly carved Northeast Parliamentary constituency. While BJP's B L Sharma Prem seemed to have an edge as a former MP from the area, Congress' J P Agarwal's strength seemed to be his close network of workers, who were going all out to make the DPCC chief win. However, the past 48 hours have changed equations completely, with the BSP candidate withdrawing from the race in favour of the Congress, and BJP lashing out at "communal'' forces through equally communal speeches.
North-East, earlier part of the East Delhi constituency from where Congress' Sandeep Dikshit had won the last elections
, has seen a lot of political drama in the past month. Agarwal was a last-minute choice to replace a controversial Jagdish Tytler for whom the ghosts of the 1984 Sikh riots have not been put to rest yet. BSP candidate Haji Dilshad Ali added a last-minute twist to the elections by withdrawing his candidature three days before the polling date and asking his supporters to vote for Congress instead.
The 16,77,056-strong electorate of the North-East constituency comes mostly from unauthorized colonies. Even though the BJP candidate B L Sharma Prem has a substantial Brahmin vote bank here, Muslims, Dalits and a strong migrant population could be instrumental in turning the tide either way. The competition is now largely between the two main parties Congress and BJP, though there is a total of 15 candidates fighting it out. BSP seemed to be eating into the Congress' kitty by taking away most of the Muslim votes but Ali's stepping down could now swing the result either way, a worrying factor for the BJP since it seemed an easy fight for them initially. Despite Prem's fiery outburst on Tuesday, accusing Congress of buying Muslim votes, his Brahmin vote bank remains secure.
Of the 10 assembly constituencies, four Burari, Ghonda, Baburpur and Karawal Nagar are with the BJP at present. The erstwhile East constituency was divided into two for these elections and after delimitation, only Timarpur was added to the North-East area, bringing with it colonies like Mukherjee Nagar, parts of Model Town, Hudson Lines etc. The constituency also boasts a BSP MLA from Gokulpur, one of the two from Delhi.
The basic problems plaguing the constituency are those of development. A large part of the constituency has JJ clusters and unauthorized colonies, very few of which have been regulated till now. Delhi Police has marked out 30 highly sensitive areas in all the seven constituencies, a majority of which fall in the North and North-East constituencies.