Constituency Watch South Delhi: Poor roads, water shortage among major concerns

Tribune News Service

Samad Hoque

New Delhi, April 14

Home to pricey and famous markets in the city, the South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency is one of the most posh and densely populated areas in the national capital.

While the area also consists of urban areas and high-end localities, the Gurjar community dominates the rural areas.

This time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which are expecting a straight fight in the upcoming poll, have fielded candidates from the Gurjar community.

Candidates in fray

Both the BJP and AAP have fielded candidates from the Gurjar community, which dominates villages in the segment. Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, LoP in Delhi Assembly, will take on AAP’s Sahiram Pahalwan, who has been the Tughalakabad MLA in 2015 & 2020

Past winners

1967 Balraj Madhok (BJP)

1971 Shashi Bhushan (INC)

1977 Vijay Kumar Malhotra (BJP)

1980 Charanjit Singh (INC-I)

1984 Lalit Maken (INC)

1985 Arjun Singh (INC) [bypoll]

1989 Madan Lal Khurana (BJP)

1991 Madan Lal Khurana (BJP)

1996 Sushma Swaraj (BJP)

1998 Sushma Swaraj (BJP)

1999 Vijay Kumar Malhotra (BJP)

2004 Vijay Kumar Malhotra (BJP)

2009 Ramesh Kumar (INC)

2014 Ramesh Bidhuri (BJP)

2019 Ramesh Bidhuri (BJP)

The BJP is fielding Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who is currently the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly. He replaced the two-time sitting MP Ramesh Bidhuri to grab the part ticket. The BJP has won the seat with heavy margins in the last two elections.

Meanwhile, AAP candidate Sahiram Pahalwan has been the legislator from the Tughalakabad Assembly constituency in 2015 and 2020. Pahalwan comes from the Bidhuri clan of the Gurjar community. In 2013, he was also elected as Deputy Mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation and has also been a two-time councilor in the corporation.

In 2019, Ramesh Bidhuri secured 6,87,014 votes to defeat AAP’s Raghav Chadha, who got 3,19,971 votes. Boxer-turned-politician Vijender Singh, who had then fought from the Congress party, had only managed to secure 1,64,613 votes. Singh, however, joined the BJP earlier this month.

BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri had got involved in a controversy in the House’s Winter Session last year. He was heard throwing communal slurs at former Samajwadi Party MP Danish Ali (now in Congress) in the lower house of the Parliament. The BJP MP had latter apologised to Ali before the privileges committee.

In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections-2024, the Congress party and AAP have entered a seat-sharing formula. While AAP will contest from four Delhi seats, the Congress will field candidates from three of the seven Lok Sabha seats in the Capital.

According to the Census of 2011, 78.91 per cent of the population in this constituency is Hindu, of which 15.39 per cent belong to Scheduled Castes, and 12.87 per cent people are Muslims.

The South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency comprises of 10 segments. Nine of these 10 seats have AAP MLAs, while the remaining one MLA here belongs to the BJP — Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who represents the Badarpur constituency.

Meanwhile, an auto-driver, Amit, who lives in the Mehrauli area, said, “The poor condition of roads and concerns regarding the water supply are the key poll issues in the area.” He alleged that the disadvantaged areas of the segment don’t receive much prominence during the polls.

AAP is riding on the emotional sentiments of Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, while the BJP has been accusing the AAP-led Delhi Government of corruption and ignoring grievances of the Delhi public.

Among the BJP stalwarts, Sushma Swaraj, Madan Lal Khurana and Vijay Kumar Malhotra have won the parliamentary polls twice from South Delhi. The saffron party had held the seat from 1989-2009. Congress’ Ramesh Kumar won the seat in the subsequent election, however it moved back to the BJP in 2014 and 2019.

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