A group of old men and women are sitting outside their homes in Kalkaji, soaking in the rare sun on Monday morning.
Suddenly, slogans rent the air and a flurry of activity explodes as Saurabh Bharadwaj, the Health Minister of Delhi and MLA from Greater Kailash Assembly constituency, walks in.
He touches the feet of a few people and greets the others inside the DDA flats’ complex. As soon as he reaches J block, a huge crowd of men rush to greet him with folded hands near Budh Vihar, a Buddhist temple at DDA flats. He says “Dhyan rakhiyega”.
Greater Kailash constituency has 1.88 lakh voters, including 99,050 men, 89,305 women and 9 third gender voters. It houses people from middle income and upper middle income groups.
Bharadwaj (45) is the three-time MLA from the constituency. In 2013, he had defeated Ajay Kumar Malhotra of BJP. Prior to Ajay, BJP’s Vijay Kumar Malhotra had won the seat. In 2020, Bhardwaj was re-elected from GK for the third time. He defeated BJP’s Shikha Roy by a margin of 16,809 votes. Rai, a BJP councillor, is going up against him again this time.
As Bharadwaj walks in the stress of DDA flats area in Kalkaji with a few party workers, the street is reverberating with songs like ‘Delhi ki janta ke kaam karta hai’ and ‘Fir laayenge Kejriwal’ from a speaker being carried by an AAP worker.
According to Y K Singh (68), a Budha Vihar resident, Bharadwaj has done enough in the area. He got roads constructed, improved street lights and installed CCTV cameras, among others. “He used to come here every Wednesday to meet us,” Singh says.
However, Shehnaz Kaur does not agree. Maintaining that she will not vote for anyone, she says, “They have not given me widow pension despite my repeated requests.”
When Bharadwaj crossed her street, Shehnaz could not meet him. She says she got to know about his visit late and was looking to meet him but he left in a hurry.
As Bharadwaj reaches L block, there are several requests from the elderly to get the trees pruned or cut. “This is causing us a lot of trouble because we are not getting enough vitamin D. It’s not safe either. The sunlight doesn’t penetrate these trees,” says an elderly resident.
Bharadwaj explains that while due to a high court order, trees cannot be felled but he will look into the matter.
A group of elderly women gather around him to inquire about the Mahila Samman Yojana and the widow pension scheme of the AAP. “You can come to my office, I will ask my people to look into your issues,” he says.
“Ek hi pension milegi…,” he tells an elderly woman, who says that she retired from government service and also gets her service pension.
Bharadwaj believes his connection with his constituents gives him an edge. “The conversation here is about the work done by me compared to the BJP candidate. Here, the Congress got 2% votes in 2015 and 3% in 2020. They are insignificant,” he says.
“The contender from BJP is a second-time councilor from GK 1 ward. People have seen her work for the last eight years and people have seen my work for the last 11 years as MLA… I say to them that I don’t want to get into the tu-tu main main of politics. I just want to tell you that you have seen our work and behaviour and how I deal with people and RWAs (resident welfare associations) and how she deals with people and RWAs. I can say with all humility and responsibility that 80%… and at some places probably 90%… of the work is done by the MLA.”
“Even MCD works, supposed to be done by the councillor… for example fixing internal roads… have been done by me,” he told The Indian Express.
As he moves to the next block in Kalkaji, the former software engineer comes across 80-year-old R K Mehta, a retired defence employee. Mehta asks Bharadwaj to help him waive off his water bill of Rs 70,000. The minister promises to look into it.
Mehta’s friend D S Arora (71) says AAP has managed to fulfill the basic needs of bijli, sadak and paani. Praising Bharadwaj, Arora says that the minister is available for people and visits the area often. “He also got all the parks revamped in our area,” he says.
However, Sulabha Basarkar (70) and Shanti Devi (48) from the same block say there is sewage is an issue here and the whole area gets flooded with gutter water during the monsoon. “We will complain when he meets us,” says Shanti. Sulabha, meanwhile, complains that she applied for a widow pension but couldn’t get it.
AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj campaigns at Kalkaji on Monday. (Express/Abhinav Saha) 
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