• Home
• /
• Opinion

Will Delhi verdict sweep aside the common man's drive?

Municipality elections in the Indian capital will signpost the long-term future of main political parties

The capital of India goes to the polls today  for the 272 three body civic elections, upped in importance because the three-way battle will signpost the immediate and long-term future for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
There is a difference this time as the city gears for the battle of the ballot.
It is difficult to call for one major reason. The votes will go more to the person and less to the party per se. Municipality elections have a different texture. While legislative elections are remote in comparison, these are more intimate and depend entirely on the visibility of the work done, the access the people in the vicinity have had to the incumbent, and the promises he or she has kept.
This is my take after talking to multiple people in Delhi last week. So many other factors go into the mix. This councilor comes to every wedding, rich or poor, and brings a gift. That one holds a durbar every Sunday. This one invited the whole slum to his farm for his wedding. This gesture is not forgotten. That guy ensures regular water supply, he is our brother, and understands our problems. Treats us as equals. We can go to his home and meet him.
There is another candidate who takes part in religious festivals and sits with the masses, listens to them, the last talent being of huge importance.
Listening to people.
On the flip side are those currently in positions of authority who have done nothing or very little. They might be hoping to get carried past the victory post by virtue of the party they stand from. It is a vain hope. The awareness of development in the common man circles is very high, unlike its awareness, or lack thereof, when it comes to state and national level exercise of franchise. Memories are long. Removal of sidewalk shops, raids, round up of street yokels, harassment and frequent blackout problems, manhole problems, delays in responses will all be a part of the individual decision.
The priorities here are sanitation (sewage and drainage and garbage clearance), roads and lighting, well run schools, safety, transportation, hospitals and clean toilets. Other issues include the removal of stray dogs, the war against mosquitoes, reducing the incidence of opportunistic diseases, streets, lighting and control of traffic, and harassment by police.
The public can tick these boxes. It remembers with startling clarity how it was treated in the past five years. The $64-question: has the quality of their lives improved? Are their women and children safer? Is the transportation system supportive and reliable?
With a voting expectancy of around 75 per cent, if not higher, these elections will see the turnout making a conscious decision based on not what is promised in the future but on what has been done in the past.
Pericles, a Greek statesman, once said you may not be interested in politics but that does not stop politics from being interested in you. Which is why these elections are of actual interest to even those generally disinclined to vote. Whom they select runs their lives, registers their births and deaths, runs their markets, maintains roads and bridges, ensures potable water, stops encroachment and squatters, in fact, practically touches every part of their daily lives.
These polls also assume an extra significance because they could be the final nail in the Arvind Kejriwal political coffin. For the man who created the symbol of a broom to sweep clean, it is ironic that the bristles have caught him in their thrall.
As Kejriwal struggles to promise a better Delhi without the interference of the BJP, the Modi juggernaut continues to fascinate and attract with this 'one man show' winning the Rajouri Garden bypoll as well as picking up the states of Uttar Pradesh and Goa, and Uttarakhand seems to be in the catbird seat come the dawn.
A dark horse is the Swaraj India party led by ex-AAP founding members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan that is contesting its first ever election as a fledgling political wing of the original socio-political entity, the Swaraj Abhiyan, which was launched last year after a spat with Kejriwal.  Whether it will gain traction is doubtful but it may well break the vote pattern since many of its candidates are next-door neighbour types who 'understand' the genuine problems of the public because they are part of it. This factor may resonate with the voters who are heartily tired of the professional politicians.
Meanwhile, the hoary old Congress Beatles along are hoping to capture a missing magic and market the former chief minister Sheila Dixit's revived standing in the Delhi mind, where it is true that nostalgia and absence has made the heart grow fonder.
A betting person would probably see the BJP holding on to its winning ways and Kejriwal getting more isolated and the Congress and the Swaraj India lot sharing a scattering of seats where the candidate has done well by the people and has their trust regardless of the party affiliation. That's 272 pieces in this jigsaw and not all of them are compatible.
As things stand, it is a question of who blinks first - they are all holding the same cards. 
The results will storm in on April 26.
Bikram Vohra is a former editor of the Khaleej Times