Bansuri Swaraj, the BJP’s candidate from the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, is a natural on the campaign trail. At an election meeting in south Delhi’s Sant Nagar, she instantly struck a chord with the crowd. Daughter of former Union minister Sushma Swaraj, Bansuri, 40, resembled her mother in attire, articulation and demeanour. Throughout her hour-long event at Sant Nagar, Bansuri, who is making her electoral debut, mingled with the crowd, reminding people of her late mother and the popularity she enjoyed in New Delhi constituency, which will vote on May 25. “If Delhi is the heart of Bharat, New Delhi is the heartbeat,” she told THE WEEK.
The BJP's decision to field the lawyer had taken many by surprise. She entered politics as co-convener of the Delhi BJP’s legal cell about a year ago. And she was chosen over Meenakshi Lekhi, the incumbent MP and a Union minister, perhaps to cash in on Sushma's enduring appeal.
Not everyone agrees, though. “Votes are cast in the name and symbol of political parties and not so much on the candidate,” said Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti, a research programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. “In this particular case, there would be a positive feeling among voters that Bansuri is the daughter of Sushma Swaraj, who was a respected leader. Still, the bigger point is that she is contesting on a BJP ticket.”
Unlike in 2019, when Delhi witnessed a triangular fight between the BJP, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, this time it will be a two-way contest as the Congress and the AAP have allied. The AAP is contesting from four seats and the Congress from three.
To take on Bansuri in New Delhi, the AAP has fielded seasoned politician Somnath Bharti, a three-time MLA from Malviya Nagar. The 40-year-old has been associated with the AAP since the party’s inception. In the 2020 assembly elections, he polled 57.97 per cent votes in a triangular contest. “This election is against the autocratic rule of the BJP,” said Bharti, who has clubbed his morning walks with campaigning. “My day starts at 4am and ends around midnight. We are raising the issues of unemployment, inflation and women’s security among others. The Narendra Modi administration has turned out to be only rhetoric and no action. The people of Delhi know this and will vote for us in large numbers.”
Apart from New Delhi, a few other seats are also expected to see a tough fight. Said political commentator Ashutosh, “It will be interesting to see the fight in North East Delhi and Chandni Chowk.” Manoj Tiwari, the candidate from North East Delhi, is the sole incumbent from the national capital to be retained by the BJP. He is facing Kanhaiya Kumar of the Congress. In Chandni Chowk, businessman Praveen Khandelwal has been chosen by the BJP against Congress veteran J.P. Aggarwal. In the reserved North West Delhi seat, the Congress has put up Udit Raj against the BJP’s Yogender Chandolia, former mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation. Udit Raj had won the seat in 2014 on a BJP ticket; he switched to the Congress after the BJP ignored him in 2019.
Many Congress workers are unhappy over the selection of Udit Raj and Kanhaiya Kumar, and over the alliance with the AAP, indicating fissures within the party. In a major setback to the Congress, state president Arvinder Singh Lovely quit on April 28, citing his objection to the alliance. Reportedly, his differences with Congress general secretary Deepak Babaria, Delhi in-charge of the party, also contributed to the resignation. The resignation has brought to the fore simmering conflicts in the Congress, with less than a month left before the city votes.
Despite the challenges, the AAP-Congress alliance has made the contest interesting to watch. Kejriwal's arrest in the liquor scam case has brought the sympathy factor into the picture. The AAP is projecting him as a victim of “political vendetta”, accusing the BJP of trying to “decimate the AAP and Kejriwal”. The party is running an emotional campaign, with Kejriwal's wife, Sunita, as its face. Said Ashutosh, “The sympathy factor will come into play after Kejriwal’s arrest. However, it would be difficult to say how much of it would convert into votes as it requires resources and booth management.”
Sanjay Kumar, however, said that neither the alliance nor the arrest would help. “In 2019, the BJP secured more than 50 per cent votes in all constituencies except one and its vote share was more than the AAP's and Congress’s combined. The alliance is unlikely to make any difference.” Kejriwal, he said, was arrested on corruption charges. “The bigger factor is that he is being denied bail by the courts, which erodes his credibility.”
At Sant Nagar, much of Bansuri's speech was about Modi. “My request for votes is not for my political interest but for yug purush Narendra Modi who transformed Bharat in the past 10 years,” she said.
After the first two phases of polling, the turnout has been lower. Although the Election Commission is holding meetings to find ways to improve the polling percentage, the apathy among the electorate is troubling. While it could hurt the BJP, the party takes comfort from the fact that Modi's overwhelming popularity and the absence of a credible national alternative could help it beat back the joint efforts of the Congress and the AAP.