Regional parties, independents may play key role in tight battles
EXPERTS SAY THE PARTIES BEYOND THE BIG THREE MAY HAVE LITTLE SIGNIFICANCE AT A PAN-DELHI LEVEL, BUT COULD HAVE AN INFLUENCE IN CERTAIN WARDS
NEW DELHI: With less than a month to go for the municipal polls in the Capital, parties beyond the traditional big three of Delhi -- the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress -along with independent candidates are attempting to make inroads into the city and are identifying wards where they could pull off an upset.
Parties beyond the big three may have little significance at a pan-delhi level, but hold the potential to divide votes and thus influence results at some seats, say experts
The All India Majlis-e-ittehadul
Muslimeen, for example, has identified 40 wards from where to contest. “The AAP has backstabbed the Muslim community and the BJP purposely deprived Muslim-dominated areas of development and funds. There is a big vacuum in Delhi which the AIMIM is going to fill in this election,” AIMIM Delhi chief Kaleemul Hafeez said.
Similarly, the Janata Dal (United) is set to contest from nearly 100 wards, banking on Delhi’s sizeable population of people from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh (popularly known as Purvanchalis). JD(U) Delhi in-charge and Bihar minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said that due to the indifference of the MCD, areas with a sizeable population of Purvanchali voters have been “reduced to garbage mounds”.
To be sure, some of these parties had also contested the previous civic body elections in 2017, when 272 seats were up for grabs, but failed to make much of a mark. For example, the
JD(U) contested from 100 seats in 2017 but failed to open its account, while the BSP could win just three seats.
However, Tanvir Aeijaz, associate professor of Political Science at Ramjas College, said the entry of small political parties makes the election outcome highly unpredictable. “The margin of victory in the municipal election is usually very low, and when so many parties get involved, the election outcome can go any way because smaller parties are going to eat into the share of the mainstream parties… Some of these parties are also propped up by the mainstream parties to disturb the political equations at the micro level,” said Aeijaz.