Sushma Swaraj’s death marks an end of an era in Delhi politics

In less than a year, Delhi has lost three of its four former chief ministers — Madan Lal Khurana, Sheila Dikshit and Sushma Swaraj, marking the end of a generation that dominated Delhi’s politics for a long time. The fourth, Sahib Singh Verma, had died in June, 2007.

Though Sushma Swaraj, one of the tallest leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is better known for her commitment to the party and its ideology, and her stint as the minister of external affairs, where she made a name for being one of the most accessible ministers, answering people’s queries and addressing grievances on Twitter, few know she had been Delhi’s chief minister for a brief period in 1998.

After she resigned in December 1998, losing elections to the Congress, Sheila Dikshit took over the reigns and continued to rule the city for three consecutive terms.

Swaraj ‘s death also marks an end to that phase of Delhi politics when caste was the dominant factor. Even before she joined the BJP wagon in Delhi, and the city became a state, politics in the national Capital had been in a state of flux. After Delhi became a state in 1992, Punjabis dominated the political landscape, then came the turn of Jats who mostly lived in the rural pockets on the peripheries, then the Brahmins and lastly people from Haryana.

Today, the migrants or the Poorvanchalis, who mostly live in the working-class neighbourhoods, dictate the political agenda. This shows a clear shift in Delhi politics.Caste identities were predominantly used for voter mobilisation in Delhi, which has now been replaced by class identity. I am not suggesting caste has vanished from Delhi’s politics, but it has been overshadowed by class, and yet there still exists a great degree of overlap between caste and class.

The nature of leadership in Delhi’s politics in the early years does indicate the dominance of caste-based mobilisation. The BJP could have hardly ignored Madan Lal Khurana, who was made chief minister in 1993, owing to the strong hold of Punjabi voters, over whom Khurana exercised great influence. His replacement, Sahib Singh Verma, represented the emergence of Jat voters. Swaraj was brought in with the view that she may be able to attract voters from across sections.

Surveys conducted by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), during the 1998 assembly elections, did suggest she might not have been as popular as her predecessors, but her appeal did cut across sections of voters. She could not win the 1998 assembly elections for her party as she suffered two big handicaps, first being the anti-incumbency on account of rising onion prices. Second, she was in the chief minister’s chair only for a few months before she had to lead the party in elections.

From the era of Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma, Sushma and Sheila Dikshit, Delhi’s politics has changed enormously, which manifests itself in the kind of leadership the capital has currently chosen for itself. The Aam Aadmi Party managed to form the government, winning a massive mandate with Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister, who represents a league of first-time politicians who had worked as social activists. Also, the party banked on Poorvanchalis and gave tickets to many people from the community. This represents a clear shift. Chhath Puja becoming an important festival in Delhi and the state government declaring a public holiday bears testimony to how the social character of Delhi’s voters has changed.

Even the BJP recognised this change and gave the leadership in the hands of Manoj Tiwari, a Poorvanchali, a change one would have hardly imagined in the 1990s. The inability or unwillingness of the national leadership of the Congress to give the state leadership in the hands of those who now matter in city’s politics has reduced the party to an insignificant player.

(Sanjay Kumar is a Professor and Currently the Director of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). He is also the author of “Changing Electoral Politics of Delhi: From Caste to Class”. Views expressed are personal)