Tired of MCD, villagers field their own and help her win

Twenty nine-year-old Archana Singh had never imagined she would be the choice of her village to be their candidate. But the choice turned out to be the right one, as Singh ended up winning the councillor's seat as an Independent candidate from Holambi Khurd ward in outer Delhi's Alipur village.

Tired of the civic problems plaguing the area for years, the villagers had decided to field their own candidate. They then funded her campaign and helped her to win.

Singh's story, goes back a few months when a group of young people from the area formed a Metro Vihar Sangathan' and asked residents to come out to contest the polls. "I too gave my application to the group. Then the village voted and I got the highest number of votes," said Singh, who is pursuing her Phd in migration studies.

The village, having around 10,000 people, helped her to campaign by contributing through donations to fund the campaign including posters, billboards etc.

"Our aim was to make Metro Vihar free of disease, sewage and other such issues. The MCD would not collect the garbage for days or clean the drains ever. This prompted us to field our own candidate. The entire village voted for her," said Jagdish Kumar, a Sangathan member.

Asked if her family supported her decision, she said, "My husband was the one who encouraged me to fight this election. He told me that I was capable of the job. After this, I filed my nomination and there was no looking back."