Challenge for AAP to stop the saffron surge

NEW DELHI : The by-polls in the three assembly seats—Krishna Nagar, Tughlaqabad and Mehrauli— will be a litmus test for political parties eyeing to wrest power in Delhi. For the BJP, these elections will be another indicator of whether the “Modi magic” continues to yield results or not; for the Aam Aadmi Party, the real challenge will be to stop the saffron surge in the capital and for the Congress, these polls might be an opportunity to enhance its vote-share.
Though the BJP has not taken any stand so far as assembly polls are concerned, the party seems to be confident of a clear victory in the three seats. It had swept all these seats in the December 2013 polls.
Tughlaqabad is said to be a BJP stronghold. People here reelected the sitting MLA Ramesh Bidhuri in December 2013 with 34,009 votes. A Gujjar-dominated belt where the elections are fought along the lines of caste and class, Tughlaqabad has been a real hurdle for the Congress. In the December polls, the Congress which had traditionally bagged the third position in this constituency, was pushed down to the fourth place with 9,781 votes. AAP came third with 12,465 votes. The Bahujan Samaj Party’s contender Sahi Ram came second with 28,063 votes.
When Bidhuri resigned after his election as MP from South Delhi in the Lok Sabha polls, the seat fell vacant. The BJP is hopeful of retaining the Tughlaqabad seat. On the other hand, Aam Aadmi Party has to work hard if it wants make inroads into the constituency, which is a hub unauthorized colonies and village clusters. The Congress hopes to rake up the issue of regularization of unauthorized colonies to reiterate the issue of development.
Mehrauli, too, has many villages and unauthorized colonies. This constituency was led by Congress heavyweight and a former minister Yoganand Shastri till December when he was ruthlessly ousted by BJP’s youth face Parvesh Verma, son of former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma. Aam Aadmi Party was at the second place followed by Shastri at the third position.
Krishna Nagar is another BJP stronghold. Voters here reelected Dr Harshvardhan with 69,222 votes in December polls. The Congress candidate V K Monga, came second with just 26,072 votes. The Aam Aadmi Party, in its turn, opened its account on this tough seat at third place with 17,498 votes.
For the BJP, these elections will be another indicator of whether the 'Modi magic' continues to yield results or not