The municipal polls in Delhi due early next year will be different from those in the past. This time the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on lakhs of migrants residing in the Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters—the section of the population with the largest share in the overall votes cast in the city—will be one of the major factors defining the elections. This is evident in the way political parties in the Capital are trying to make inroads in slum clusters carrying out rallies, public meetings and mass outreach campaigns ahead of the polls.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—which has been ruling the three municipal corporations for 15 straight years—launched ‘Jhuggi Samman Yatra’, a 45-day outreach campaign in slum clusters. And this September, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ran ‘Aapka MLA, Aapke Dwar’ programme in which the party claimed to have held over 2,500 public meetings to get people’s feedback on the working of the municipal corporations. The Congress has also been running the ‘Pol Khol Yatra’, in which the party claimed to expose the ‘empty’ promises of the BJP and the AAP.
JJ clusters, once a stronghold of the Congress, shifted to the AAP when it came to power in Delhi. The BJP mostly has middle class and upper middle class as its voter base, but is trying hard to reach out to JJ clusters, as the party has high anti-incumbency in the three corporations—North, South and East—and retaining its votes, while garnering support from this section is crucial for upcoming elections.
There are a total of 272 municipal wards—104 each fall in the North and South corporations, while 64 are under the East Corporation. The BJP had won 181 seats in the 2017 civic polls. The AAP, which at present has over 50 councillors across the three corporations, has a better chance of bagging more seats given the result of the municipal bypolls held this February in which it won four of the five wards; two of being BJP strongholds. For the Congress, it’s all about regaining lost ground in Delhi, which it ruled for 15 years until the AAP came to power in 2013. The party at present has 32 councillors across the three corporations.
Now, municipal corporations are not responsible for work in slum clusters as all the development and maintenance work as well as providing of basic amenities falls under the jurisdiction of the state government’s Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). Still, since they are the voters with a major share in polling, the civic bodies say they have a political compulsion to provide them services.
A senior BJP leader, who did not wish to be named, said that the municipal corporations have been providing services in these areas such as collecting waste and cleaning drains. “Though all the development work, be it constructing toilet blocks, laying of drains, or providing basic necessities is the Delhi government’s prerogative, the municipal corporations provide their services here both on humanitarian grounds as well as political responsibility,” he said.
Also, a large number of children from JJ clusters are enrolled in corporation-run schools and get benefits such as daily meals, uniforms, books and other materials. “It is easier to reach out to the local councillor than an MLA, and hence people here depend on civic representatives for resolving their everyday issues,” he added.
Ground report
When The Morning Standard visited some of the slum clusters, residents said that though the basics like waste collection and some cleaning work is done by the civic bodies, having access to clean toilets and potable water is something they can still only just dream of. Besides, the pandemic has left many people jobless and that is the larger issue political parties must address.
At the Anna Nagar Camp, situated between two drains (nallahs) behind the WHO building, ITO, where a number of jhuggies built along the nallahs were washed away last year because of torrential rains, people said that the toilet block built by the AAP government has come as a relief.
“Previously, women had to go far out on the main road to relieve themselves. All political party leaders come here, but the local AAP MLA is a frequent visitor. Besides, a South MCD van collects waste every day. Our major issue is the nallah and the stench during the rains; there have been many accidents here of children falling into it. There must be some boundary erected here to make it safe, we have raised this issue with every party that comes here for years,” said Bharpaai Pihal, a 65-year-old, who has been living here for the past 30 years.
Pihal added that many people in the camp lost their jobs during the pandemic and are finding it difficult to make ends meet. “People here cannot afford even the cooking gas cylinder costing `900. I hope the parties do something about it in this election,” she said.
At KD camp in RK Puram, K Sami, 60, said that he has been living here for the last 22 years and seen all parties campaigning here. But nothing changed much in the slum cluster. “All previous governments promised us pucca houses with basic amenities and took token money from us several times, but nothing happens once the election is over. We continue to live along open drains that are full of human excreta and garbage. Besides, lack of toilet facilities and clean drinking water is still a fight for us,” said Sami.
Of Yatras and NaMo Kendras
In the Jhuggi Samman Yatra, Phase I, which the BJP launched on October 15 and will go on till November 29, the party has so far covered 107 slum clusters across 16 assembly constituencies. The target is to cover 33 constituencies with high concentration of slum clusters.
In the yatras, the party has been highlighting the Central government’s pro-poor schemes such as the Ujjwala yojana for cooking gas cylinders and the Sukanya yojana for educating girls. Delhi BJP Vice-President Virendra Sachdeva said that they have registered 800 people under the Ujjwala yojana so far during the yatras, while many pending applications are to be completed. “We are reaching out to people in these areas where they are struggling for potable water and sanitation services that the Delhi government had promised,” said Sachdeva.
Besides, he said, the party also plans to set up ‘NaMo Kendras’ in every cluster, which will act as the single-window system for availing all centre-run schemes. “We are developing local leadership from the clusters, where local leaders will be made to head the kendras and help fellow residents,” he said.
Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta, in a recent interview to this newspaper, had said that the condition of the slums remains the same, as they were left by the Congress, and even after the AAP came to power and promised them freebies and a better life. “Most clusters don’t have clean water and are forced to buy drinking water on a daily basis. In many areas where we have been taking the yatras, people complained of inflated electricity bills. The people don’t have the basics that the AAP had promised if it was elected to power. The state government also failed to contain the migrant exodus and mismanaged the whole thing,” said Gupta.
The AAP and the Congress calling the BJP’s yatra “eyewash” alleged that since the ruling party is deep into “corruption” in the three MCDs, they are trying to take into confidence the poor by promising them benefits under the centre’s schemes.
Mud-slinging by parties
AAP’s Durgesh Pathak, who looks after municipal affairs in the party, said that the party will make a clean sweep in the civic polls scheduled early next year. “The BJP has had high anti-incumbency over the past 10 years. Their councillors cannot visit unauthorised colonies, as they have taken loads of money for allowing construction work there.
Last time, they changed all their sitting councillors and managed to win a majority. Also, they have not done any welfare work in the slums, even during the pandemic. In 2017, it was the first civic poll for us. But now, the AAP local leaders are much more connected and more familiar with the work and the people. It was quite visible in the recent bypolls when the BJP was defeated in its strongholds. Also, the AAP’s work during the pandemic years of distributing ration and other facilities is unmatched,” said Pathak.
He added that the party is soon to launch a new outreach campaign ahead of the polls. In the civic bypolls held for five seats in February this year, the AAP won four including Shalimar Bagh, Rohini-C (the two are traditional BJP strongholds), Kalyanpuri and Trilokpuri. The Congress secured one seat—Chauhan Banger.
The bypolls were necessitated, as four of the sitting councillors had won the 2020 assembly polls while one other had died. Plus, the winning the bypolls in one ward boosted the confidence of the Congress state unit. Delhi Congress Chief Anil Chaudhary said that both the BJP and the AAP have been making “hollow promises, which was visible in the way the migrant crisis panned out” during the first lockdown.
“Lakhs of migrant workers and the urban poor left Delhi on foot to their native states after struggling for food and water when they ran out of work and savings. But AAP provided them with ration cards and tickets to return home. What were the ruling parties doing then, other than waiting for the crisis to worsen?” asked Chaudhary.
Besides, he said, so many people living in these slum clusters are out of jobs and do not even have basic facilities towards which both the BJP and the AAP have done nothing. Both the parties had announced ‘Jahan Jhuggi Waha Makan’, but no development has happened on that front either, said Chaudhary.
“We have been working on the ground, which is visible in our vote share increasing from 3 per cent in the 2020 assembly polls to 22 per cent in the civic bypolls this year. We are confident of victory in the upcoming polls,” he added.
BJP, AAP and Congress are trying to make inroads in slum clusters carrying out mass outreach campaigns ahead of civic polls, although the poor condition of these settlements remain unchanged, report Vatsala Shrangi and Gayathri Mani