Tight rope walking for Kejriwal

New Delhi: AAP leader and 49-day Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is facing the toughest battle to retain his New Delhi constituency for Delhi Assembly elections scheduled for February 7.

On Tuesday he could not file his nomination because he could not pass through the mass of his supporters who had come from different parts. On Wednesday he filed the nomination, and appealed to his constituents to vote for truth and for the victory of ‘aam aadmi’.

Unlike in 2013, now his nearest rival is BJP’s Nupur Sharma who was DUSU (Delhi University Students’ Union) president, had studied in the UK and Germany, and she is also a lawyer. She is banking on the Modi wave as well.

The Congress’ Kiran Walia, a former minister in Sheila Dixit’s government, is a new face of the party but she is not in the reckoning of the voters.

A shoe-stall owner at Hanuman Mandir in the constituency said, “It is only the sound of AAP and BJP here.” The residents of this constituency cannot be categorized on the basis of caste or religion except that most of the voters (1,36,189) are government employees, and the rest are traders. They have voted for Congress’ three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dixit in 1998, 2003, 2009 but shunted her out in 2013 in favour of Kejriwal.

Kejriwal’s supporters have started campaigning more than a month ago but this time he has to confront the Modi wave, Nupur Sharama’s dynamism.

A paan-wallah by Regal theatre was dismissive of AAP, “Watch out, this time the broom (party’s electoral symbol) will be disappear from here.” Why? “He ran away (as the Chief Minister) when we voted for him to govern.”

By: G K Reddy