dna edit: Delhi assembly election - A capital contest

A rare instance of a genuinely triangular contest has distinguished the Delhi assembly polls.

Traditional rivals Congress and the BJP have been arguably outpaced in strategies and visibility by the debutante Aam Aadmi Party even if this does not translate into votes. To place this achievement in perspective, the closest precedent dates back to 1983 when the fledgling Telugu Desam Party under matinee icon NT Rama Rao stormed into power in Andhra Pradesh.

Elections are a week away, but not even opinion pollsters, can hazard a guess on which way the Delhi electorate will go. Contrast this with three other big poll-bound states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. When campaigning began in these states, the Congress was unanimously expected to perform disastrously but in recent days perceptions have changed, again with near- unanimity.

By most accounts, it is the conduct of the 2010 Commonwealth Games that has become the millstone around Sheila Dikshit’s neck. The Shunglu Committee and the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report pointed out delays in decision-making, cost overruns, flaws in tendering, sub-standard construction, and favouritism in the execution of CWG projects. When Delhi became the epicentre of the year-long anti-corruption crusade, the CWG and the Delhi government’s involvement were repeatedly raised. Perhaps, the most telling instance of the Dikshit administration’s failure is the Connaught Place renovation. An initial estimate of Rs76 crore in 2005 escalated to Rs671 crore in 2007 but the work has missed several deadlines since 2010 and is far from complete.

In 2008, the Dikshit government awarded provisional certificates, that apparently had no legal standing, to regularise nearly 1,600 unauthorised colonies in an unprecedented show of pre-election largesse. This year the government has finally removed all barriers to ensure the regularisation of these colonies. The slums were not forgotten either, with the city’s BPL population becoming eligible for 12 LPG cylinders, per year, now and plots being allotted to slum-dwellers. But with local and national politics irreconcilably tied up in Delhi, the discontent against the central government has inevitably spilt over. The tremendous crowds at Narendra Modi’s Delhi rallies have more to do with this simmering anger against the Centre. After all, the blame for corruption scandals, unprecedented price rise and a weak economy, besides the attacks on women — all issues that matter most for Delhi’s poor and middle classes — lie more with the Centre than the state.

The BJP is on an upswing again after the belated decision to replace party chief Vijay Goel with former health minister Harsh Vardhan as its chief ministerial candidate. For a party which initiated the Delhi Metro project, the immensely successful polio eradication campaign and the Nanavati Commission that was the first meaningful intervention for justice in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the BJP has been unable to effectively articulate an appealing developmental agenda. Until last week’s sting operation that rudely disrupted the AAP’s claims to upholding probity in public life, the Congress and the BJP were distinctly nervous. Despite the dubious nature of the sting operation and its inconclusive nature, the AAP will have to live with this taint for a while. The Congress and the BJP have gone into overdrive and made it an important campaign issue.

Ultimately, the Delhi polls will also be a mandate on a new political experiment. And the nation is watching.