NEW DELHI:
Okhla
is considered to be one of the least developed areas of Delhi and faces infrastructure, sanitation and transport challenges. So, when
Congress candidate from
East Delhi,
Arvinder Singh Lovely
, came calling, some of the residents at
Shaheen Bagh
could be heard murmuring that politicians realised the importance of voters only before elections. Lovely was, however, given a warm welcome by party workers who showered rose petals on him and shouted slogans.
As the procession moved towards the venue for a public meeting, curious onlookers stood on balconies to get a glance of Lovely.
The Congress leader claimed
AAP
was trying to eat into his party’s traditional vote bank, but its hopes were dashed when they rejected its alliance demand. “Now they are trying to take revenge and helping BJP by splitting the anti-BJP votes. Their candidates are mostly campaigning in minority areas and avoiding any visit to areas considered to be BJP strongholds,” he said. Lovely, who was a four-time MLA from Gandhi Nagar assembly constituency and former DPCC chairperson, said AAP couldn’t do well after the 2015 assembly election as people understood their reality.
“Looking at the condition of infrastructure in Okhla, it is difficult to say any development work ever happened here in the past four years. There is a central university (Jamia Milia Islamia), but no facilities for youth. In Shaheen Bagh there is no playground or hospital while roads are in a terrible state. It is right time for residents to get a better future by voting for the right candidate,” Lovely said.
He also called AAP’s statehood demand irrelevant. “Even if we get full statehood, how will they allow 80-85% reservation for Delhi students in Delhi University as it is governed by the Centre?” he said.
Locals gathered at the meeting also highlighted the pitiable condition of roads and sanitation. “The quality of water supply is the worst, that’s why we have to buy drinking water from outside. The elected representative had barely made any efforts for taking the Kalindi bypass project ahead so that locals won’t need to take a detour till
Jamia Nagar
to enter the place,” said R K Raza, a local.
But outside the venue, public opinion was quite different. “People here are AAP fans. You should have seen the crowd here when Arvind Kejriwal came to Okhla on Thursday. I don’t know the situation at other places but here AAP is going to get maximum votes among the three political parties,” said Rashida Begum. She, however, agreed that roads and water supply need to be spruced up. A fruit vendor said the local MLA and councillor are very approachable. “They live here and understand the problems,” he said.
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