New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have both lined up their heavyweights to campaign for their candidates ahead of the bypoll to Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar Assembly seat, which fell vacant after AAP legislator Raghav Chadha was elected to the Rajya Sabha on 25 March.
The BJP’s candidate for the seat is former municipal councillor Rajesh Bhatia, while the AAP has fielded Durgesh Pathak, an old party hand.
From Friday to Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to campaign in Rajinder Nagar, the AAP said in a statement. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and several other leaders, like Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and cabinet minister Gopal Rai, have been actively campaigning in the constituency over the last few days too.
Last week, the BJP too released its list of star campaigners, including Union ministers Nityanand Rai, Bhupender Yadav, Narender Singh Tomar, Smriti Irani and Piyush Goyal, other than all the seven Lok Sabha MPs of the party in Delhi.
The AAP holds 62 seats in Delhi’s 70-member Assembly, while the BJP has eight. Winning or losing the Rajinder Nagar bypoll doesn’t mean much in terms of altering power equations in the House. But both parties seemingly have their own reasons for laying such high stakes on this one seat which goes to polls on 23 June.
“Although the BJP has only eight seats in the Delhi Assembly, it is our larger political opponent at a time when AAP is trying to expand its footprint across states after the Punjab victory on 10 March. We cannot afford to lose a single seat to the BJP in Delhi, which remains AAP’s home turf,” a senior AAP leader, who did not wish to be identified, said.
He added: “Also, the candidate in Rajinder Nagar, Durgesh Pathak, is not just another person given a ticket. Much like Chadha, he is a close aide of the CM (Arvind Kejriwal). He contested the Delhi Assembly polls in 2020 (Karawal Nagar seat) but could not win. Also, he is taking on the BJP in all matters concerning municipal affairs in Delhi. So, the stakes are definitely high. The CM himself and all his ministers will campaign in Rajinder Nagar.”
For the BJP too, the Rajinder Nagar bypoll is more than just an election, according to a Delhi-based party leader who did not wish to be identified.
“Rajinder Nagar used to be a BJP stronghold. We have to reclaim this seat. And that is why we are leaving no stone unturned in the campaign,” the leader explained.
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‘Litmus test’
Between 1993 and 2008, the BJP’s Puran Chand Yogi was the legislator representing the Rajinder Nagar constituency. In 2008, the Congress wrested it from the BJP’s grip. But in 2013, the BJP regained the seat with the victory of R.P. Singh, who is now a national spokesperson for the party. Since 2015, however, the seat has been with the AAP. While Vijender Garg won the constituency in 2015, Chadha was elected in 2020.
According to AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, there is only one objective behind AAP deploying its top leaders to campaign in Rajinder Nagar. “The objective is to convey to the masses that if they want good schools, healthcare facilities, roads, smooth water supply, better power availability, and other basic benefits in their constituency, there is only one solution: ensuring that AAP is in power.”
The BJP leader quoted earlier, however, said the bypoll to Rajinder Nagar was being given so much importance by the party because it was being seen as a “litmus test” for the municipal elections in Delhi, which are likely to take place early next year.
“Rajinder Nagar is currently facing a major water supply crisis. If popular BJP leaders can convey the right message to the people, the seat can be ours and it will set the tone for the municipal polls,” the BJP leader said.
However, BJP legislator and Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Bidhuri, said: “I would not connect the Rajinder Nagar campaign with the municipal polls or anything else.”
“Bypolls are important and the party has taken the right decision in deploying heavyweights in the campaign. The BJP does it in other places too,” he added. In 2017, the BJP had defeated AAP in bypolls for the Rajouri Garden seat.
The Congress, which scored a duck in the 2020 Delhi election, too has fielded a former municipal councillor, Prem Lata, from the constituency. For the party, it is a chance to send one MLA to Delhi’s Assembly.
“The party plans to deliberate on star campaigners over the weekend. But our ward-level and booth-level workers are actively campaigning,” Mudit Aggarwal, vice-president of the Delhi Congress, said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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