Lok Sabha election 2019: Better facilities, traders’ issues will play on voter’s mind in Chandni Chowk on Sunday
Six other constituencies will also vote along with Chandni Chowk, one of the oldest and earliest constituencies in the country, on Sunday and counting will be held on May 23.
The Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency, home to Delhi’s architectural heritage, mixed demography and a thriving commercial hub, will vote in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha election on Sunday.
Six other constituencies will also vote along with Chandni Chowk, one of the oldest and earliest constituencies in the country, on Sunday and counting will be held on May 23.
The constituency with 1,557,403 voters is still the smallest of the seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi in terms of electors.
The Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat used to be a Congress stronghold, but the BJP wrested it in the last general election. Harsh Vardhan had defeated AAP’s journalist-turned-politician Ashutosh by over 100,000 votes in 2014, while Congress’s Kapil Sibal ranked third, more than 2 million votes off the top.
This time, however, a triangular contest is in the offing.
The BJP has repeated its tried and tested leader Vardhan (64) — an ENT surgeon originally from east Delhi’s Krishna Nagar, from where he has been elected MLA four times.
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The Congress has fielded old-guard Jai Prakash — a local from Chandni Chowk’s Parathe Wali Gali, who had fought his first Lok Sabha election from the area in 1984 and has represented the seat thrice since. Contesting his ninth LS election, the 74-year-old is believed to be the most experienced politician in Delhi.
The AAP has nominated newcomer Pankaj Gupta — a software professional, who is contesting an election for the first time. Fifty-four-year-old Gupta quit his job at a software firm in Gurugram to join the party full-time.
Of the ten assembly segments in the densely-populated constituency with characteristic crowded and narrow walkways, seven house some of the city’s biggest wholesale markets and industrial units. These are the trading centres of Chandni Chowk, Matia Mahal, Ballimaran, Sadar Bazar, Model Town, Wazirpur and Tri Nagar.
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Today, the Walled City comprises 30% of the entire constituency. Planned areas such as Civil Lines, Delhi University (DU) and government colonies in Timarpur comprise around 25% of the constituency. Unauthorised colonies like Adarsh Nagar and Jahangirpuri and slum clusters such as Shakur Basti and Inderlok count for another 25%-30% of the area here.
Mostly concentrated in the Walled City, merchants and money-lenders, Vaishyas, constitute 17.5% of the population and a sizeable Muslim population (14.2%), are the two key population segments in the area. While the traders, along with high-caste Brahmins (8%), are traditionally known to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Muslim community is known to favour Congress candidates.
Other key sections like pockets of Punjabi voters (13.8%) in areas in north Delhi like Model Town and Shalimar Bagh, scheduled castes (16%) and other backward communities (17.5%) usually end up voting in a divided manner between the three parties.
While traders’ woes dominate the discussion, issues like pollution, affordable housing, parking and jobs are key for residential areas such as Model Town, Pitampura, Mukherjee Nagar and Shalimar Bagh.
In Adarsh Nagar, Jahangirpuri and Shakur Basti, mainly comprising unauthorised colonies and jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) clusters, basic facilities such as piped water supply, sewerage and proper roads, remain the key issues.
For the youth here, jobs remains a top priority. Shakur Basti houses slum clusters that do not have electricity meters and have to rely on private contractors for power.
