With 11 candidates AAP eyes Purvanchali pie
VOTEBANK The party has maximum candidates from the community compared to BJP’s three and Congress’ two
NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal has made a strong pitch to woo the Purvanchali voters, saying his party has given 11 tickets, up from 9 in 2013, to candidates from the electorally important community.
For the BJP and the AAP, locked in a fierce war to win Delhi, one of the main battles is for 25 lakh Purvanchali votes. Large-scale migration from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh has changed Delhi’s demography over the years, and about two dozen ‘Purvanchali’ constituencies can swing political fortunes when Delhi votes on February 7.
“AAP gives eleven tickets to Purvachalis. BJP has given three. Purvachalis feel they been given respect and equal participation for first time by any party,” Kejriwal tweeted on Friday.
Some of the 11 AAP candidates are: Adarsh Shastri (Dwarka), Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar), Gopal Rai (Babarpur), Sanjeev Jha (Burari), Bandana Kumari (Shalimar Bagh) and Sarita Singh (Rohtas Nagar).
The three BJP nominees are: Sanjay Singh (Vikaspuri), Anil Jha (Krirari) and Gopal Jha (Burari).
Congress spokesperson Jitendra Kochar said, “We don’t distribute tickets based on caste, creed and regional considerations. We rely on winability.”
Congress has fielded only two candidates: Mahabal Mishra (Matiala) and Pratyush Kanth (Kirari). Both BJP and Congress have Purvanchal wings to raise issues of this community.
AAP denied that the party was catering to regionalism. “BJP and Congress do politics of regions. We feel every section of the society should get fair representation. Any imbalance creates fissures,” AAP leader Ashutosh told Hindustan Times.
BJP also defended itself. Its leader Harish Madanlal Khurana said, “You cannot champion the cause of a community merely by giving tickets. BJP has been raising the issue of Purvanchalis for decades.”
In the 2008-13 assembly, there was only one purvachalis MLA (BJP’s Anil Jha). In 2013, AAP fielded 9, and 5 of them went on to win.
“People from this community form 20% of Delhi’s 13 million electorate. But we have also given tickets to Purvanchalis in seats such as Shalimar Bagh and Malviya Nagar where their population is not dominant,” said an AAP strategist.
Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung recently declared Chhath, a major festival of the Purvanchal region, a public holiday after Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay met government officials. Earlier, it used to be a restricted holiday. This was seen an attempt at damage control after a senior BJP leader called for a halt to migration of people from Bihar and UP to Delhi.