NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha polls in Delhi will be held in the sixth phase on May 25, per the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday.
The Capital will witness a bipolar contest between the AAP-Congress alliance (4:3) and the BJP on all seven seats. Buoyed by its success in the 2014 and the 2019 polls, wherein it won all the seats, the BJP is hopeful of an easy win, unmindful of the INDIA bloc partners joining hands to take on it.
The national and the local issues will form the poll plank of the contesting parties. While the BJP is likely to underscore the developmental works of the Narendra Modi government in Delhi and across the country, the AAP-Congress alliance will attempt to corner the saffron party on issues of price rise, employment, and even the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
Also likely to echo in the poll campaigns are issues like the lack of civic amenities for residents of unauthorized colonies and the acrimonious relationship between the L-G and the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government affecting the developmental projects.
Meanwhile, the BJP is all set to play up issues like the Ayodhya Ram temple and the corruption cases against AAP leaders. The alliance will go all-out to raise the alleged ‘misuse’ of the central agencies at the hands of the Centre besides the electoral bonds issue.
Of the constituencies, the most watched would be the New Delhi and South Delhi seats, which, in the past, have sent prominent leaders from both the Congress and the BJP to the Lok Sabha, like former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former deputy prime minister LK Advani, Madan Lal Khurana, Sushma Swaraj, and Lalit Makan. BJP’s Manoj Tiwari -- the only sitting MP that the party has repeated here for the polls -- will be seen trying to retain the North East Delhi seat for a third time in a row, the other seats being Chandni Chowk, East Delhi, North West Delhi, and West Delhi.
