On Delhi barometer, Aam Aadmi Party reflects in every reading

Patel Nagar has two of the city’s oldest villages, Khampur and Shadipur, though now transformed. With the Metro running overhead, with its old shops, houses and small businesses, it embodies the feel of Delhi conveyed in Khosla ka Ghonsla, Vicky Donor and even Oye Lucky.

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It also has an intriguing electoral history. Since 1993, whichever party Patel Nagar has voted for has formed the Delhi government. Till 1998 it had a BJP MLA, for the next 15 years it had one from the Congress, and last year the AAP won.

This time, things are more complicated than usual. The sitting AAP MLA (Veena Anand) is contesting as an independent. The BJP candidate (Krishna Tirath) is a Congress veteran who crossed over last month. And the AAP candidate (Hazarilal Chauhan) is the brother of a Delhi Congress leader.

But whichever part of the constituency one travels to, the party stirring the pot is the AAP.

Metro lines next to the Khampu village.(Source: Oinam Anand)

The Manchanda brothers, contractors and realty consultants working with several government departments, sit in Khanna Market, named after Jana Sangh veteran Balraj Khanna. They are dismissive of the AAP: “Will reducing the price of power or sabzi be meaningful?” Calling themselves the true migrants, they say those supporting AAP are those “who are migrants — unlike us. Our parents came from Pakistan long ago and we were born here.” They say a former cop such as Kiran Bedi is “ideal” for the city. “Dilliwallahs maar se darte hain. Only a dictatorship can sort out Delhi.”

This area is home to jewellers, shopkeepers and owners of large houses, several in posh eastern Patel Nagar where, says a resident, “real estate prices are as high as in South Delhi”. In contrast to this old Sangh fortress, the chatter just outside is about what the AAP represents.

In Khampur, chole seller Ashrafi Lal Gupta does not buy the money-laundering charges the AAP is now battling. “I only know the MCD, police and safai karamcharis didn’t take money during the 49-day rule, but after the AAP went, they came back asking, ‘Kahan tha Gupta?’ I had to pay up eventually. The AAP will stop this.”

A woman irons clothes on the streets of Khampur village. (Source: Oinam Anand)

Residents here include small painters and electricians, and people who drive autos or small vehicles they don’t own, or pull rickshaws. Unlike those rooting for a dictatorship, they are wary of the choice of a former police officer. “Maybe the police staff will vote for her for this reason, not us.” Says painter Ram Swarup, “Arvind Kejriwal will come, and he should. He understands our problems.” He is not anti-Modi but, “Ab Modi to nahin Dilli ke CM banenge, yahin ka koi banega, na?”

Counting on little things such as the AAP enabling filling of forms, and prioritising the lives of the poor, they seem unmoved by the last-minute BJP push with ads targeting the AAP. Says Rakesh Kumar, who is educated and has a house here but not a job, “Arrey, agar ek bande ke peechhe 10, 11 bande lag jaayenge, to woh bhaagega nahin? He will get a majority this time.”

Adds a bystander, “We may have considered old BJP councillor Gulshan Bhatia, but Tirath was fielded. When she could not stand by a party that was hers for over 30 years, how will she stand by the common man? We want change.”

But didn’t the big change of 2014 quench the desire for another? “We mean a change that works for us. Ab yeh change to hua nahin hai. What has been done for us?”

Rafiq, who runs a pathology lab, says support for the Congress is running thin, even among usual loyalists. “Having seen the AAP get 28 seats and establishing itself as a force, people are happy to root for them. Common people don’t want to travel by helicopter or even car everyday, but expect costs of living, utilities and vegetables to be reasonable. Who else talks about all this?”

Those in the Muslim pockets, particularly the elderly, credit the Congress with providing water connections and uninterrupted power. But when it comes to voting this time, they are unsure. Dr T U Siddiqui, going through a busy morning with patients, says: “I was with BJP once, then Congress and even BSP. But now, Aam Aadmi is the answer, and I can challenge you, 90 per cent of Muslim areas will vote for them. Modi achche hain lekin 9 lakh ka suit pehnege to hamari baat kaise samajh payenge?”

Mohd Mehruddin and Dinesh Kumar Srivastava, who work at a bakery, appear amused when asked why Arvind Kejriwal went off early last time. “Kahan chale gaye? Yahin to hain.”