NEW DELHI, February 7: The prestigeous New Delhi parliamentary constituency with an electorate of 5.18 lakh has always been represented by high profile political leaders like L K Advani, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee or a cine star Rajesh Khanna at some point of time.With a markedly diverse socio-economic complexion, the constituency is like a capital within a capital as the super VVIPs reside in it on the one end with a fair scattering of jhuggi clusters on the other.
The Congress and the BJP are the traditional rivals, but the balance seems to be tilted in favour of the latter with the last sitting MP being Jagmohan.In a run up to the forthcoming elections, the constituency is likely to witness an interesting battle between BJP stalwart Jagmohan and Congress strongman R K Dhawan. Other main candidates in the fray include Janata Dal's Hukam Singh Saini, Bahujan Samaj party's Khem Chand Jatav and the lone woman fighter Swaraj Bala from the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
The main tussle for the seatwill between the high profile Congress warhorse Dhawan and low profile bureaucrat turned politician Jagmohan. If Dhawan is a die-hard politician, once a trusted aide of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, Jagmohan is equally a shrewed statesman, a well known writer and winner of the prestigeous Padma Shree and Padma Bhushan national awards.
The New Delhi constituency is a high literacy area with an electorate comprising 297,924 males, 2,19,825 females and 358 service voters. The largest segment among the single voters consists of government employees numbering over 1.5 lakh with a muslim and Sikh populace of 50,000.
Social activist Sudha Semwal of Rouse Avanue says, `` A dominant factor capable of swinging the balance in favour or against a candidate involves over 60,000 jhuggi-dwellewrs in the five assembly segments. Most of them are from Bihar and are mainly concentrated in the clusters at Minto Road, Tilak Bridge, Lajpat Nagar, Nizamuddin, Pushta and behind Nehru Stadium.''
In the last Lok Sabhaelections in 1996, Jagmohan defeated his rival cinestar-turned politician Rajesh Khanna by a thumping majority. He had led in all the five segments.
While national and local issues dominate here, an important factor would be the candidate himself and for the discerning populace of this part of the capital, the candidate's merits and demerits are expected to be the main consideration.
The BJP MLA from Sarojini Nagar, Ram Bhaj justifies his optimism saying ``we won the seat during the 1996 elections, we had a clear majority in the assembly elections in 1993 and municipal elections in 1997.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
