Campaigning for the Delhi Elections has ended and the capital city will go to vote on 5th February. One interesting take away from the campaign was the Citizens’ Voice. While covering the campaign I spoke to a cross section of voters. Those in the slums and lower income groups appreciated the various bouquets of welfare schemes that were being promised by each political party in the fray.
However in South Delhi, while talking to a group of professionals and salaried class voters, the refrain was unanimous. In fact one voter identified himself as the Taxpayer who pays for all the freebies promised by the politicians. That was the mood of the entire group, a sense of outrage that instead of delivering on development and jobs, the politicians are resorting to the band aid of handouts and that too with the other hand in the taxpayer’s pocket. Those who are hurt the most belong to the salaried class and the middle class.
To an extent Nirmala Sitharaman the finance minister has tried to assuage the middle class with the budget. But, as the joke goes, you have cut income tax. Now, how about giving us some income? The demand for jobs and unemployment is still there and none of the government schemes seem to have made much headway including the internship scheme. Lay-offs rather than recruitment slips are being handed out. This is a problem not just for the next government of Delhi but for each and every government that rules our states as well as the government at the centre.
Apart from that, who has the edge in Delhi? Well it did seem that initially the Aam Admi Party was ahead with a huge margin between it and the BJP with the COngress being reduced to the role of a spoiler. But of late the BJP seems to be catching up and there is a real fight for the next chief ministership of Delhi. The BJP waited for the AAP campaign to peak before it unleashed its manifesto and stepped up its rallies and public meetings.
Before that, as many as 27 leaders had been deployed throughout the city, ranging from stalwarts like Dharmendra Pradhan, Anurag Thakur etc with the Delhi incharge Jay Panda overseeing the operation under the aegis of Amit Shah himself. The reach out has been comprehensive, and the BJP does seem to have closed the gap substantially. Will it be enough to wrest the capital city away from the Aam Admi Party ? The answer to that lies with the voter. The rest of us will know on 8th February which is counting day.