In December, the Modi govt had passed a law to regularise illegal colonies

In December, the Modi govt had passed a law to regularise illegal colonies

In December, the Modi govt had passed a law to regularise illegal colonies

In early December, Parliament passed a bill to grant land ownership rights to residents of 1,731 unauthorised colonies in Delhi. The National Capital Territory of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Bill, 2019, had been introduced the previous month by the Narendra Modi government. Writing in THE WEEK in January, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi declared the legislation conferred ownership rights on 40 lakh people.

Reports before the elections suggested the regularisation of colonies could be considered a key issue in the polls, with 12 Assembly constituencies have up to 50 unauthorised colonies. According to News 18, these were were Burari, Gokalpur, Narela, Bawana, Mundka, Kirari, Vikaspuri, Uttam Nagar, Najafgarh, Palam, Chhatarpur and Badarpur.

However, trends from counting of votes in the Delhi Assembly polls seem to suggest voters in many of these constituencies with large number of illegal colonies preferred to go with the AAP.

In Burari, incumbent AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha was leading.

In Gokalpur, Surendra Kumar of AAP is leading. AAP had won the seat in 2015 also.

In Narela, incumbent AAP MLA Sharad Kumar is leading.

In Vikaspuri, AAP's Mahendar Yadav, who won in 2015, is leading.

In Uttam Nagar, AAP's incumbent MLA Suresh Balyan was leading.

In Palam, AAP's incumbent MLA Bhavna Gaur was leading.

In Badarpur, AAP's Ram Singh Netaji is leading. AAP had won the constituency in 2015.

In Chhattarpur, AAP's incumbent MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar was leading.

BJP candidates were leading in Najafgarh, Mundka, Bawana and Kirari; all four constituencies were won by AAP in 2015. Interestingly, Home Minister Amit Shah had campaigned in the first of three of these four constituencies.

In Sangam Vihar, incumbent AAP MLA Dinesh Mohaniya is leading. Sangam Vihar has the largest number of unauthorised colonies in Delhi. The area has suffered from poor infrastructure including roads. A large number of the voters in the unauthorised colonies come from the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

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