Sunder Nagri: At cradle of CM’s politics, residents recollect man who sat on 15-day fast

Banshidhar, 67, chimes in that the support for the AAP is not only because it began making its presence felt in the area first but because “they have worked even after that”.

Down the street from where Banshidhar lives, Kejriwal had gone on a 15-day fast against high power and water bills in 2013, before announcing that the party would contest its maiden election — the AAP went on to win 28 seats in the 70-member Assembly and form the government with outside support from the Congress.

The current MLA of the area’s Assembly constituency of Seemapuri, Rajendra Pal Gautam, is from the AAP. For the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress — in alliance with AAP — has fielded former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar from the constituency.

“Kejriwal’s fast was over high bills… now we don’t get electricity bills. The party has also grown since then… there are more supporters. They are stronger now. Ab log unki sunte hain (now people listen to Kejriwal). It is not just about AAP in Delhi and BJP at the Centre now. Both have worked at their own levels,” said Banshidhar, who used to run a dye-making business.

On the Chief Minister’s arrest and bail, he added: “It is happening around the time of the election. People will see through such things.”

Sunder Nagri, which lies close to Delhi’s border with Uttar Pradesh, is divided into multiple blocks, some of which are on the Delhi Urban Shelter Improve-ment Board’s list of JJ clusters. While a market runs through one of the central lanes, the bylanes are narrow and cramped and dotted by multi-storey houses — closely packed — with small grocery shops and a few bakeries running on the ground floors. The area has open drains, some filled with garbage, running through some of the bylanes. There are both government schools as well as a few small private schools.

JJ colonies such as the ones in Sunder Nagri are part of the AAP’s core voter base.

While residents now get free water and electricity, and fewer power cuts, Singh, who used to work as a tailor, said not much else has changed. “What can change? These are the same jhuggis, the same narrow lanes,” he said.

A few lanes away, Wasim Ahmad, 30, who runs a grocery store, agreed. “It’s a JJ Colony. There are issues of cleanliness and that can be better, but what more can change in such colonies? We have been hearing this ‘Hindu-Muslim’ a lot more over the past few years, more than what it was like when I was a child… but this area has remained peaceful,” he said.

As for the CM’s arrest, he added: “They are talking about corruption. But who is not corrupt today? We remember the protest he had here… nobody knew him before that, and now people support him.”

While Delhi’s polling date is just two weeks away — May 25 — most parts of Sunder Nagri, however, were bereft of campaign paraphernalia such as posters or flags. “We haven’t seen much campaigning. In these inside lanes, nobody has come so far,” Ahmad said.

Salman, 35, who deals in scrap, is more cautious about declaring support in the area for the AAP. “They started working here, but the area still has supporters across parties. From here, Santosh (Koli) was more popular than Kejriwal. Everybody knew her,” he said.

Koli, who had been part of Kejriwal’s NGO, Parivartan, died after an accident in 2013, a few days after she was made the AAP candidate for Seemapuri in its maiden assembly election. Kejriwal’s protest against high electricity bills in 2013 was launched from her house in Sunder Nagri.

Another resident of the area, who runs a grocery store and did not want to be named, also remembered Koli. “She was very popular and used to help the women out here… on Kejriwal, I don’t know about the bail and have not been paying attention to it,” she said.