New Delhi: “Atishi ji has an image of someone who mixes with people and listens to their problems.”
These words, curiously, come from Ram Lal Nishad, a Bharatiya Janata Party councillor in Kalkaji constituency in South Delhi.
The Congress party asserts that the 2025 Delhi legislative assembly elections will witness a three-way contest. The BJP claims the election will be a bipolar battle between itself and the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). However, in Kalkaji, where current chief minister Atishi Singh is the sitting MLA, there appears to be little contest at all.
Atishi secured her seat in 2020 with 55,897 votes, just 793 more than what AAP’s Avtar Singh polled in 2015. This suggests that AAP’s support base in Kalkaji remained relatively stable. During the same period, the Congress lost 8,587 votes, while the BJP gained 11,269 votes.
Since the NOTA option and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) each garnered approximately 500 votes in both 2015 and 2020. This indicates that the decline in Congress’s vote share translated almost directly into gains for the BJP in this constituency.
However, many voters believe this time around AAP will improve its support base in Kalkaji due to both push and pull factors. Atishi’s personal accessibility, AAP’s track record in improving public education, providing clean drinking water facilities, public toilets, and women empowerment – all these seem to be pull factors. Ramesh Biduri’s controversial image perception, his almost non-existent track record as an incumbent MLA and MP, and a clear demarcation of the expectations and choices of parties and leaders from national and state elections seem to be the push factors.
The Wire traveled extensively for three days across Govindpuri, Maharani Bhag, Okhla Industrial and Mandi regions, Kalkaji Police Station area, and CR Park Pocket 40 blocks to gather voters’ sentiments.
A public toilet on Govindapuri Main Road. Photo: Pavan Korada/The Wire.
A ‘commoner’ on a scooty
In almost all these blocks whenever people spoke of Atishi, they invariably ended with the rhetorical question: “How many chief ministers have you seen going around on a scooty like a commoner?” Surprisingly, even BJP leaders in Sarvoday Camp and Balaji Estate begrudgingly accepted that Atishi’s image – as someone whose office and home doors are always open to the common people, especially those who are poor and living in juggis (slums) – is something that they find difficult to counter.
“Atishi ji has an image of someone who mixes with people and listens to their problems,” councillor Ram Lal Nishad, quoted at the beginning of the piece, says.
“Biduriji, on the other hand, is like a typical strongman. His penchant for shooting his mouth off makes him relatively inaccessible compared to Atishi ji. Even we are scared to speak in front of him openly, for we don’t really know how he is going to react,” Nishad told The Wire.
When asked about AAP’s claims of revolutionising public schools, Nishad complained that most of the kids in their ward (number 85) are unable to get admission in the local public school because the principal is a Muslim. However, Asha, who works with Nishad and is also a BJP women leader, ironically interjected by saying, “This is true. Even those who can afford private schools are admitting their children in public schools. And our children are suffering because of this.”
Parminder Chadda, who owns a fruit juice shop on Govindpuri main road and also identifies himself as part of a group called ‘friends group’ which includes mostly sardar men dabbling in real estate in the area, explained that “the demand for public school has grown precisely because they’ve become better than private schools. So if it is difficult for kids to get admission in public school, this should be considered a good development,” he told The Wire.
So why is Biduri contesting from Kalkaji?
“Obviously to polarise the voters,” Chadda said. Nishad agreed. “Biduriji did next to nothing despite being in power for 25 years – 15 as an MLA and 10 as an MP. We know this. We also know that his controversial statements against women will reduce women voter support for us. We also know that he will alienate Purvanchali voters because he made a comment saying ‘remove these Biharis from here.’ But what say do we have in these matters? It’s up to Modi ji. However, we are fully with Kamal (lotus),” he said.
Interestingly, Nishad used the word ‘majboori‘ (compulsion) to explain why he is still loyal to the BJP. “I was with the BSP for 15 years until 2021. However, since I moved here from my village in Uttar Pradesh, I realised BSP is not in power here, nor will people take me or the problems of my people seriously since we are not in power. So I decided to join the BJP,” he reflected. Apparently, he couldn’t join the AAP since many others like him beat him to it.
A child walking the tightrope just outside a middle-class gated community in Govindpuri. Photo: Pavan Korada.
Exaggerated claims and communal strife
Nishad and Asha were right to point out that claims of providing clean drinking water and clean public toilets were ‘exaggerated.’ This reporter has visited many public toilets, and most of them in the Govindpur area are in terrible condition and as good as unusable. Also, many households in the ward are still drinking bore water.
Public toilet near Bhoomiheen camp. Photo: Pavan Korada/The Wire.
“While free public bus travel for women has ensured women can travel even further to do domestic work, the non-maintenance of clean public toilets is still a hassle for our women,” Parvez Hussain, who sells groundnuts on a hand-pulled cart in Bhoomiheen camp, told The Wire.
Many estimate that one-fourth of the electorate is Muslim and approximately one-tenth of them live in Sarvoday and Bhoomiheen camps. Rumors of communal nature are rife here. Yash, a news producer with News24 and a local resident, said, “A lot of Rohingya people are getting benefit from the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) while poor Hindus are being neglected.”
However, Rajinder Kumar Sharma, who owns an electric shop in the camp, said “I haven’t seen any Rohingya here so far.”
Naseema (standing). Photo: Pavan Korada/The Wire.
Naseema, a 45-year-old widow, lives in a dilapidated structure she has called home her entire life. Naseema has been allocated a Delhi Development Authority (DDA) flat some 500 metres away under the PMAY. “I have to pay Rs 1,47,400 for registration of the DDA flat and on top of that I need to pay bribes to officials. I don’t have the money,” she lamented. She continued: “Modi ji doesn’t like us. He does everything for the Rohingya while we have become foreigners in our own land.” She is referring to the Rohingya camp in North Delhi.
The DDA flats are basic 1-BHK flats which are being allocated for a temporary duration of five years. Many of the poor continue to live in slums while they rent these flats out. “Such is their desperation. Meanwhile, crime, unemployment, and non-maintenance are major issues in these flats,” Sonu Kumar Misra, electricity in-charge on duty at the DDA flats, told The Wire.
Completed yet unregistered and unoccupied DDA flats. Photo: Pavan Korada/The Wire.
DDA In-situ Rehabilitation Flats at A-14 Kalkaji Extension. (Flats where one can see an AC sticking out have mostly been rented out). Photo: Pavan Korada/The Wire.
This reporter followed Congress candidate Alka Lamba, who happened to be canvassing door-to-door, on the way to the DDA flats. Curiously, she repeatedly referred to Atishi by stressing on her last name “Marlena,” while requesting voters to not vote for her. When this reporter pointed out that Atishi now refers to herself as Atishi Singh, Alka Lamba responded with a smile saying, “I only know her by this name. What’s wrong with the name anyway?”
Congress candidate Alka Lamba canvassing in Kalkaji. Photo: Pavan Korada/The Wire.
What of Kejriwal?
In Okhla, Munna Bajrangi, a self-proclaimed BJP supporter who also moonlights as a small-time money lender in the mandi, said that inflation and loss of livelihoods during and post-COVID-19 lockdown are hurting the people. “However,” he clarified, “people also understand that these issues are in the hands of the Union government. So they are not blaming AAP for this.”
Naseem Khan, an auto driver at the mandi, said that “while there is some disaffection regarding the increase in gas (CNG) prices, Atishi should sail through,” he told The Wire. When this reporter pointed out the ‘sheesh mahal‘ (glass palace) allegation that the BJP was making, both Bajrangi and Khan dismissed it outright. “He is the CM. Of course he needs a decent house. Look at chief ministers from other states. They’ve built golden palaces for themselves. In fact, the cost incurred for their security itself will cost more than this ‘sheesh mahal,'” they said.
Many people belonging to the middle classes living in areas like Maharani Bhag, around the Kalkaji police station, and C.R. Park Pocket 40 told The Wire that when it comes to state elections, they think Kejriwal is better suited for the job.
As a retired postmaster, Utsav Niyogi, living in pocket 40, put it, “China and Pakistan are trying to conquer us. The Muslims want to destroy all the kafirs with Saudi oil money. In such an antagonistic world only someone like Modiji can save us. That is why he is best at the national level. At the state (domestic) level though, the challenges are different, like in Delhi mostly it’s about civic issues and such. For this Modi ji is not necessary. Moreover, Kejriwal and AAP are doing a good job so they should continue. So I voted for Modi ji in the 2024 general elections and now I’ll vote for Kejriwal,” he told The Wire.
In the general election 2024, the BJP’s Ramvir Singh Bidhuri led the Kalkaji assembly segment, which falls in the South Delhi parliamentary constituency, with 55,755 votes, compared to AAP’s Sahiram Pehalwan, who secured 43,606 votes.
