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Shiela Dikshit may win Delhi assembly elections again

By Lalit Sethi. Dated: 10/1/2013 11:53:16 PM

The election fever has begun in Delhi, almost in full earnest, to elect a new legislative assembly before the end of the year. The main contenders are the Congress and the BJP. While Mrs. Shiela Dikshit is seeking a new third term of five years, she would like to pull it off once more by hoping to win voters with free food grains ~ wheat, rice and coarse grains ~ up to 35 kilos for a poor family of five at a price ranging from one rupee to three rupees per kilo. The distribution was launched by herself last month on August 20 on Rajiv Gandhi's birthday. She also started giving pensions of Rs.500 a month to poor widows with ration cards or Aadhar cards. How far has that scheme gone is not known, but she is banking on widespread reach of the Metro, smart buses, good roads, even if still overcrowded. Five years ago, she saw to it that even Safal or Mother Dairy shops sold a dozen vegetables at a fixed price of Rs. 5 per kilo, although it may be far from possible to get them to sell anything even at Rs.10 per kilo this year. Even potatoes sell at Rs.17 a kilo now, though every winter, there is a glut and thousands of kilos go waste every year, especially in U.P.
Mrs. Dikshit might argue that Mother Dairy is no longer the poor man's shop, but one that serves middle and upper classes with some fancy products even if they are overcrowded small outlets and not always too clean, but they do provide a considerable service and great competition to green grocers and private milk vendors, if not the main dealers in the game, with some service thrown in by the Delhi Milk Scheme, which began in Delhi almost 55 years ago.
While Mrs. Dikshit has proclaimed her leadership in the race, the BJP, divided badly as it is, and with many group leaders claiming to be supreme, might be harming their own chances as possible Chief Minister or the party securing an outright majority. Mrs. Dikshit claims that her chances of victory are supported by many sample surveys and early opinion polls, her detractors would like to point to the scams that go back to the Commonwealth Games bonanza of flyovers and widening of roads and an endless list of modernizing New Delhi and other Games venues.
The BJP and the new kid on the block, Aam Adami Party led by Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, are campaigning on the back of the government's failures on many fronts and promise to provide solid proof when the time comes. Mrs. Dikshit claims that public memory is short and there is no positive proof of wrongdoing. While the BJP believes that Kejriwal will primarily cut the Congress vote to the saffron party's advantage, Kejriwal himself has repeatedly described the BJP as just another Congress.
In fact, he was the one who exposed the business ventures or empire of the former BJP president, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, who as party chief had well manicured looks and smart outfits and the life style of the super rich and powerful. Mr. Gadkari was forced to quit his office and lie low rather than seek a new two year term as BJP chief. Mr. Gadkari is now back as the boss who oversees the feuding Delhi BJP in well worn clothes of a party worker, but will this man help the party romp home with victory in Delhi or anywhere else? The BJP knows that he will not do so. The principal rivals in the Delhi BJP are Mr. Vijender Gupta and Mr. Vijay Goel, a former Union Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government between 1999 and 2004. But Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, is another group leader with some following although he would like his son to be contest the Assembly election, but whether at 81, he is retiring or not is yet to be known. Are there several other groups in the Delhi BJP?
Who then is the BJP's chief campaigner in Delhi? The saffron parivar has no option but to leave it almost entirely to the vocal Mr. Narendra, Modi a man full of muscle, always well dressed, round face and round figure and ever well ironed clothes, ever extremely well turned out, a man with a swagger, who hopes and promises to be the next leader of all India. His oratory has been acknowledged by his detractors, but he is now receiving competition because Rahul Gandhi has started speaking confidently, forcefully and in fluent Hindi. The match is on and it is not a one-man race any more. He is able to martial his facts and challenge those of his rival.
Mr. Modi is putting up a massive rally with large video screens in Delhi at a venue larger than Ramlila Grounds and the entry fee for party workers has been set at Rs. 10 per head. How many party workers are being mobilized by the BJP and RSS remains to be seen to make it a big show. Will they be tens of thousands?
A pro-BJP news channel has projected victory for the party and says that Kejriwal's party could win 11 seats in the Assembly. That might be more than the Aam Adami Party's expectations because a new party has rarely done too well, and may be happy with half a dozen seats. But Kejri hopes to mobilize the youth and he and his band go from door to door, street to street to make an impact. He is not short of funds as he has admitted that his party has raised Rs. 8.58 crores so far and could raise more funds in days, weeks and months to come.
Whether he will try to spread his wings to Haryana Assembly elections has yet to be ascertained, but he may not wish to spread his wings too far and wide. Haryana may be the land of his birth and his style of speaking comes from there, but he has proclaimed himself to be a Dilliwala and has set his sights in the national capital.
—[IFS]