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As BJP, AAP bet on star power & big issues in MCD polls, Congress goes low-key with local focus

In absence of star campaigners, Congress candidates are relying on 'ward-specific manifestos' & Bharat Jodo Yatra to garner votes. Local election requires local leaders, they claim.

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New Delhi: Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) paraded star campaigners and exchanged barbs over issues of sanitation and corruption, the Congress ran a relatively lacklustre campaign for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, with its focus centred on personalised manifestoes for each ward. 

It also steered clear of big names with ex-MPs and MLAs appearing as its star campaigners in Delhi, as opposed to BJP’s star-studded affair featuring Union ministers and chief ministers. 

Campaigning for the MCD election is scheduled to end Friday. While the voting will take place Sunday, the results will be out on 7 December.

“Local election requires local leaders,” said Congress candidates, underlining their belief that the Bharat Jodo Yatra — replete with senior Congress leaders — would positively affect the MCD poll campaign.

Shahin Parveen, the Congress candidate from Jama Masjid ward, claimed her party was the “first to introduce a personalised manifesto” for the area. She said that Congress leaders from across Delhi are now making their own local manifestos, addressing issues faced by that particular ward. 

Congress candidate from CR Park ward, Bhavna Gupta, said the idea behind an area-specific manifesto was to add a “personal touch” to the campaign. 

Congress candidate for CR Park ward, Bhavna Gupta during a public meeting | Facebook
Congress candidate for CR Park ward, Bhavna Gupta during a public meeting | Facebook

“It’s the candidates that are important in this election. They should be educated and know about the problems of people in the ward. Voters here will not be lured by freebies or other such rhetoric. It’s about the work we have promised to carry out in the individual wards that will help us win,” she told ThePrint.

In contrast to her statement were efforts by the  BJP and the AAP to project Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as the face of their campaigns at the expense of local candidates.

In its campaign, the ruling BJP targeted the AAP over alleged irregularities in the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy and leaked videos of Satyendar Jain allegedly getting favourable treatment in Tihar jail. The AAP, in turn, trained its guns at BJP councillors, accusing them of failing to clear the heaps of garbage in the city.

Asked about both parties labelling each other as their main competitor, Congress’ Bhavna Gupta said, “it doesn’t matter that BJP and AAP have not been considering us as their competitors because it’s the public that is considering us.”


Also Read: As BJP trots out big guns for Delhi polls, AAP goes hyperlocal with street plays, Kejriwal model


‘Women-only park, narrow streets, pet parks’

Elaborating on her ‘personalised manifesto’, Congress’ Shahin Parveen said her ward, Jama Masjid, is a “woman ward” which is why addressing the issues listed in the manifesto will benefit women of the area.

“We wish to open the ‘women-only’ park here that was inaugurated long ago with a lot of thumping, but remains inaccessible. We hope to do this within 15 days of being elected. Secondly, we want to open a high-class library for girls in six months since there is space for it as well and make an ultrasound machine available in Kasturba hospital, where lack of this device has led to deaths of many unborn children,” she said.

Congress candidate for Jama Masjid ward, Shahin Parveen, with former MLA Alka Lamba | Facebook
Congress candidate for Jama Masjid ward, Shahin Parveen, with former MLA Alka Lamba | Facebook

Similarly, Congress candidate Rahul Sharma brought the issue of congested streets and roads in the ‘personalised manifesto’ he made for the Chandni Chowk ward.

“We will provide 24-hour ambulance service because cars can’t enter narrow streets. No other party had thought about it. We will also devise a way to make it easy for children to go to school since there is no entry for vans in the non-motorised zone. We will arrange suitable transport for them,” he said.

Sharma also said he would bring the process of allotment of a permanent spot to hawkers in the heritage market to its logical end. Other candidates introduced their “party’s manifesto” but we introduced our own “ward manifesto”, he told ThePrint.

Congress candidate from CR Park ward, Bhavna Gupta said her manifesto was a compilation of all the problems the residents told her about over the last six-seven years when she was working as a social worker.

For Gupta, her priority is the development of “pet parks” in her ward, along with sterilisation and tagging of troublesome stray animals. Her manifesto also talks about composting dried leaves that she says are burnt on street corners instead of being utilised for other purposes. “If technology is available for cleaning roads and pruning trees, why aren’t we using it?” she asked. 

Besides area-specific issues, the manifestos of most Congress candidates were a mix of commitments made by the party in its official MCD manifesto, including the provision of RO water purifiers to the disadvantaged, more involvement of RWAs in civic body’s work and better parking facilities. 

One common feature was a proposal for a common avenue for the public to register complaints regarding the implementation of the civic body’s work.

No uniformity among ‘star campaigners’

Compared to the AAP and the BJP, the Congress’s public rallies lacked any pageantry and were small gatherings without a massive stage in the foreground or loud campaign music blaring in the background.

For Rohini C ward candidate Jitender Ahuja, who took out a padayatra, the list of Congress leaders available for his campaign “didn’t have famous names”.

Meanwhile, the BJP flew in Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami and fielded Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Hardeep Singh Puri, among other star campaigners, for its campaign.

The AAP, too, got its top leadership involved in the campaign, but the Congress’ list of star campaigners was made up mostly of former elected representatives. 

There was also a lack of uniformity in the speeches of Congress star campaigners, with some raking up ‘farmers’ issues’, others talking about ‘Dalit issues’ and a few even attacking Kejriwal for ‘not supporting Muslims’.

Former Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba, a frequent star campaigner in the wards that fall in her erstwhile constituency, declared bitterly in the Jama Masjid ward jan sabha that losing the assembly election did not mean she had “lost her courage”. 

“Our fight is not with the BJP who fight elections through divisive politics. They are at least clear about their intentions. Kejriwal, on the contrary, is a man who strikes from the back. Who maintained silence over the wrongful release of the rapists of Bilkis Bano or the Delhi riots and the CAA-NRC (clashes)? Who had made Tablighi Jamaat infamous? It was him,”  Lamba said.

Another star campaigner Aradhana Misra spoke about farmers protesting under the Geeta Colony flyover in ITO for the “last eight months”, demanding land rights.

Congress MLA Aradhana Misra canvassing for party's candidate ahead of MCD polls | Twitter @aradhanam7000
Congress MLA Aradhana Misra canvassing for party’s candidate ahead of MCD polls | Twitter @aradhanam7000

Invoking late Sheila Dikshit’s contribution, including the ‘jahan jhopdi, wahan makan’ (in-situ rehabilitation) scheme initiated during her tenure as chief minister of Delhi, the Congress MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur Khas said: “Others might make promises but we guarantee you that farmers’ issues will be the first thing to be discussed in the meeting once we get elected.” 

The “Bela camp” is home to “thousands of families” but is not even recognised by Google Maps, she announced to a crowd of slum dwellers. Asked whether the issues raised by her will resonate with Delhi’s voters, Misra told ThePrint: “Congress has always taken forward the issues of the farmers and the women’s issues. These all are our people.” 

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)


Also Read: Expressways to underpasses, Gadkari’s MCD poll pitch for BJP focusses on his ministry’s work


 

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