Outer Delhi Parliamentary seat trifurcated
Outer Delhi — the constituency of Congressman Sajjan Kumar and the BJP's late Sahib Singh Verma — used to be the biggest Parliamentary constituency of Delhi with a reported voter strength of 38 lakh. It has been divided into three seats with the addition of some areas that were earlier in South Delhi. Now instead of Outer Delhi, we have North-west Delhi — which has been made a reserved SC seat — West Delhi and South Delhi.

North-west Delhi, carved out from Outer Delhi, is going to be a reserved seat. This means that Mundka, the stronghold of late Sahib Singh Verma’s family, becomes part of a reserved seat, from where his son Parwesh cannot contest. This, however, does not mean that the Congress can easily pocket this seat. The reason being that with the rise of the BSP, a considerable chunk of the SC population that stands at 21.52 per cent of this seat may shift to that party. This may well lead to a three-cornered contest.

West Delhi, the second seat carved out of Outer Delhi, has had Rajouri Garden, Hari Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Dwarka and Janakpuri added to it. This means that this seat, which should have been Congressman Sajjan Kumar's home turf — he comes from the Madipur area here — has had some localities of Punjabi and Sikh traders added to it. This may mean his political hold over this seat may come down a bit.

The present South Delhi seat is the third one to be carved out of the Outer Delhi seat. The drastically altered South Delhi is no longer the "posh" seat it used to be. It now comprises the belt of unauthorised colonies and villages that were earlier in Outer Delhi. So, the BJP's Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who won the previous election from the former South Delhi seat, may have to think of moving to the present New Delhi seat comprising R.K. Puram, Greater Kailash, Karol Bagh, Patel Nagar, Moti Nagar, Delhi Cantt, Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi and Kasturba Nagar.

These areas have a good trader population that is more likely to vote for him.

East Delhi bifurcated
Similarly, with growth in its population, East Delhi is no longer one parliamentary constituency. Two constituencies, North-east Delhi and East Delhi, have been carved out of it. Both have a strong Poorvanchal population.

With Lal Bihari Tiwari no longer the blue-eyed boy he once was, the BJP will face a stiff challenge in the North-east Delhi and East Delhi seats. Tiwari, a three-time MP, who defeated H K L Bhagat and Sheila Dikshit, resigned from the primary membership of the party before the last MCD polls over his non-inclusion in the party's election committee, constituted for the polls. He had been the face of the strong Poorvanchal population in East Delhi. He has been on the sidelines even after rejoining the party. So the party may face a problem taking on Sandeep Dikshit in the trans-Yamuna areas.