On the margins, a different Delhi election: ‘Direct cash transfers to kids, free gas cylinders’

Meet the outliers in the Delhi election fray this time, all of them promising to bring about change in their own unique way while acknowledging quietly that their chances of succeeding are almost next to none. The Indian Express spent a day with four such candidates on the margins — three first-timers at this level and a veteran — all trying their luck from four of the capital’s most high-profile constituencies. There was confidence, hope, some anger and a lot of grand promises.

‘My people trust me’: Haider Ali (50), Independent

Work: Driver. Constituency: New Delhi.

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s seat. Other key candidates: Parvesh Verma, MP and son of ex-CM Sahib Singh Verma (BJP); Sandeep Dikshit, son of ex-CM Sheila Dikshit (Cong).

Seated on a plastic chair outside his home in “Qawwal Mohalla” off Panchkuian Road, Ali is “unhappy” with Arvind Kejriwal. “We have seen the AAP’s work for over 10 years. Nothing has changed… It feels like we are living on the border of the city,” Ali said. Records show the area falls under New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), which is controlled by the Centre.

Ali, who has studied up to Class 9, admits he is not into politics. In fact, he says, his friends and family chipped in to buy two pairs of kurta-pyjamas so that he could “look like a politician”. “They also collected money to file the nomination papers. One friend gave me Rs 4,000 to get pamphlets published, another gave me a car for canvassing,” he said.

Each pamphlet has his photo, and two promises: Rs 5,000 per month for each woman and a gas cylinder for Rs 500. “The schemes of the Centre are not reaching our locality. This bias was what made me contest. My family and neighbours, who have seen me running around for their work for years, said they would rather vote for me than trust anyone else,” he said.

Asked about the street’s name and his poll symbol, a harmonium, Ali says he hails from a “community of qawwals”. “Our roots are in Muzaffarnagar (UP). It was after settling here that the community took up other jobs like driving and tailoring,” he said. Ali himself works as a driver, staying in a 35 sq-yard space in a four-storey building with his wife and two sons aged three and five. So how does he manage his campaign? “The techniques of campaigning and giving speeches, talking to voters, I am learning from Google and YouTube videos.”

‘Family, friends are helping'”: Prakash Chandra Joshi (50), BRJ

Work: Pujari (priest). Constituency

Patparganj. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s former seat. Key candidates: Awadh Ojha (AAP), Ravindra Singh Negi (BJP), Chaudhary Anil Kumar (Congress)

Hailing from Uttarakhand’s Almora, Joshi says he was denied a ticket by the BJP although he is a “committed RSS member”. “That is when I came in contact with BRJ,” he says about the Kanpur-based Bharatiya Rashtriya Jansatta, which is making its first poll foray in the capital.

Joshi has set up a poll office inside a shop located on the same lane where the AAP, Congress and BJP candidates have their local HQs in West Vinod Nagar. And his feeling of disappointment at being rebuffed by the BJP is evident. Seated on a mat inside his office, he breaks down as he recalls his early life. “My father was also a pujari (priest). He died in 1990, when I was a teenager. After that, the responsibility of my mother and siblings came to me. My mother worked as a domestic help. I sold milk and distributed newspapers, so that I could study,” he said.

“Even now, l don’t have the money needed to contest. My wife, son, daughter and daughter-in-law are all helping me in this contest, and friends and neighbours. This party (BRJ) has given me this space, and some friends have helped me with two e-rickshaws with loudspeakers,” he said.

Joshi’s poll promise? “Free gas cylinders, revamped roads and sewage lines, a community centre, proper parking spaces, and measures to prevent chain-snatching incidents in my locality.”

‘AAP didn’t listen to me’: Haji Iqbal Siddiqui (49), Independent

Work: Vehicle owner. Constituency

Kalkaji. Delhi CM and AAP leader Atishi’s seat. Other key candidates: Ramesh Bidhuri, ex-MP (BJP), Alka Lamba (Cong)

Siddiqui, a resident of Govindpuri’s Bhoomiheen Camp, owns a Grameen Sewa vehicle that ferries commuters between Tara Apartments and the Badarpur border. With a cooler as the election symbol, this is his first foray into the Assembly-level after having failed in two successive civic elections. He says he was an “AAP karyakarta” but has moved on and wants to be a part of the next government.

“Look at the condition of the roads, nalas… and the stalled pension for senior citizens. I will work alongside any party that has a plan to deliver basic services. When I was an AAP karyakarta, I had asked them to develop our area but they did not listen,” he said.

According to Siddiqui, promises of monthly cash doles by the main candidates are “wrong”. He has a solution, too: A monthly deposit of Rs 2,500 into the account of every one-year-old child until they turn five . “If the money is put in a fixed deposit, they will have the means to study, start a business or build a home when they grow up,” he said.

Siddiqui stays in a rented accommodation for Rs 6,000 a month and has a six-month-old daughter. He has taken a gold loan and hired two e-rickshaws for campaigning. “I am going door to door and telling people to give me a chance,” he said. Asked about the heavyweights in the fray, he said, “You cannot think like this when entering the battlefield, this way even Kejriwal would not have contested against Sheila Dikshit…It does not take time for people’s minds to change.” But what are his chances, really? “There are 30-35,000 votes in my JJ cluster. I am not sure about everyone’s support, but I will at least have my own vote.”

‘We need change’: Yogesh Swamy (40), RWPI

Work: Tuition teacher, freelance journalist. Constituency

Karawal Nagar, one of the sites of the 2020 riots. Key candidates: Kapil Mishra (BJP), Manoj Tyagi (AAP) & Dr P K Mishra (Congress).

This is Swamy’s second election as a candidate at the Assembly-level and sixth consecutive attempt to get elected into office — any political office — in the hope of putting in place “a law guaranteeing jobs for the youth and less taxes to ensure that households have more disposable income”. “I have been contesting elections since the MCD polls in 2017 on this party’s ticket; the last election I fought was for the Lok Sabha last year,” he says.

A freelance journalist who doubles up as a tuition teacher, Swamy was born and brought up in Karawal Nagar, which witnessed violence during the 2020 riots. “I grew up in this area and we have seen all parties, Congress, BJP, AAP, but look at the condition of our roads, the dirty water we get from our taps. All these parties are by and for corporates, not even one of them stands for the rights of the workers,” Swamy says.

While the BJP, he alleged, was seeking votes in the name of religion, all three principal political parties were offering “alms” for votes. “We need change,” he says. And his main poll promise? “We will give an account of each rupee from public funds being spent.”