Capital contest

In Delhi, the Congress(I) hopes to benefit from popular disenchantment with the BJP's dismal record in office in the territory.

T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
in New Delhi

THE Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress(I), the principal contestants in Delhi, are squaring up for the Assembly elections. The BJP is defending a dismal record in office: law and order, public health care, and power, water and transport services in Delhi have deteriorated in the last five years and the recent escalation in the price of onions is seen as the most visible symbol of the administration's failure to check the prices of essential commodities. The party is also riven by factionalism, which intensified with the recent change of Chief Ministers.

The BJP seemed to have had a headstart in the election campaign, with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee addressing a public meeting on October 24. However, this event only accentuated the factional feuds in the party. Former Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana was conspicuously absent on the dais at the meeting. Seated next to Vajpayee were Sahib Singh Verma, who replaced Khurana as Chief Minister in 1996, and Sushma Swaraj, who replaced Verma as Chief Minister on October 11 after the BJP realised that its popularity had been severely eroded by the anti-incumbency factor (Frontline, November 6).

In his speech, Vajpayee defended the policies of the BJP-led Government at the Centre - ranging from the Pokhran-II series of nuclear tests to the controversy over the singing of Saraswati Vandana at the conference of State Education Ministers. He accused the Congress(I) of "creating a fear psychosis" among the minorities. And referring to issues of immediate relevance to Delhi, he said that the only solution to its problems was conferment of full statehood on Delhi. In 1993, the BJP had committed itself to and campaigned on the platform of statehood for Delhi.

The rally enthused the BJP, particularly because the Congress(I) was yet to organise a meeting on such a scale, but it also intensified factionalism. At an October 27 meeting with Vajpayee and Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, which was held ostensibly to discuss the BJP's electoral strategy in Delhi, Khurana gave expression to his anger and displeasure over the "appeasement" of Sahib Singh Verma.

The BJP is also under intense pressure from caste- and community-based groups. The removal of Verma displeased the Jat community, which threatened to boycott the elections. And when Transport Minister Rajendra Gupta was eased out to accommodate a Verma protege, the Vaish community (of traders) felt slighted: the Vaish Federation demanded that Gupta be reinducted into the Ministry. The migrant Punjabi community, which owes allegiance to Khurana, is peeved that its leader was not reinstated as Chief Minister although the courts had dropped all charges against him in the Jain hawala case.

IN 1993, when the first elections to the Delhi Assembly were held, the BJP benefited from a wave in its favour and won 49 seats in the 70-member House. The Congress(I) won only 14 seats, but subsequently won the support of three other legislators.

This time the BJP finds that the tide of popular opinion has turned against it: there is widespread public anger over the administration's failure to tackle inflation. Compared to many earlier elections, price rise is a serious issue this time. Onion prices, which touched Rs.60 a kg and more, may prove to be a decisive factor, as all sections of society have been affected. Aware of the perils on this front, the first Cabinet meeting convened by Sushma Swaraj, on October 12, recommended that the Centre allow import of onions under Open General Licence and waive import duty on them.

SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee with Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj and Sahib Singh Verma at the public meeting that kicked off the BJP campaign in Delhi on October 24. Former Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana's absence was conspicuous on the occasion.

The Congress(I) plans to launch its campaign in a big way on November 3 with a public meeting to be addressed by party president Sonia Gandhi. The party's campaign, it is clear, will focus on the BJP's Government's "failures". A Congress(I) leader said: "The BJP has proved that even though it had a clear majority in the Assembly, it is not good at governance." A Congress(I) slogan gives an imaginative expansion for the abbreviation BJP and mocks at the Government's failure to provide Bijli, Jal and Pyaj (power, water and onions).

The Congress(I) hopes to benefit from the faction feud in the BJP and the alienation of the Jat community from the party. The support of the Jat community may be crucial in 21 constituencies in Outer Delhi. Sensing this, the Congress(I) has organised about 80 meetings addressed by Sajjan Kumar and K. Natwar Singh, both of whom belong to the Jat community, in the Assembly constituencies in Outer Delhi. The Congress(I) also hopes that the Jat factor will have a spillover effect in neighbouring Rajasthan, where too Assembly elections are to be held on November 25.

Delhi Pradesh Congress(I) Comm-ittee president Sheila Dixit has added a personal dimension to her party's campaign by releasing a booklet titled "Read and Think". It is in the form of a letter from Dixit to the people of Delhi and highlights the BJP Government's failures over the last five years. Significantly, the letter also holds out an apology for the "mistakes committed in the past" by the Congress(I) and says that the party had atoned for these mistakes.

Dixit told Frontline that the people of Delhi had experienced "governance" under the BJP and that the party's attitude had been "irresponsible and unresponsive".

The Congress(I) claims that it is committed to nominating persons with a clean record and has set up a screening committee and drawn up a code of conduct in respect of this. Whether this will amount to anything more than electoral rhetoric is unclear, particularly in the light of the claim that all the sitting Congress(I) legislators, barring one or two, will be renominated. Former Union Minister H.K.L. Bhagat has been put in charge of the campaign committee; Congress(I) Legislature Party leader and veteran leader Jag Pravesh Chandra is in charge of the manifesto committee and is a member of the election committee.

RESPONDING to the charge of "non-performance" levelled against the BJP Government, BJP leaders said that they would focus on the "development work" undertaken in Delhi and the "anti-farmer" policies of the Congress(I). Both the parties bank on the votes of people in rural areas as well as migrant labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

The president of the Delhi unit of the BJP, Mange Ram Garg, told Frontline that the BJP, a "cadre-based party", would not face the problem of factionalism. He dismissed the voices against the BJP as "just a sentiment" expressed from some quarters. "We ran the Government for five years with no allegations of corruption," he said, and added that the party was confident of increasing its tally of seats to 50.

IN the absence of a credible "third force" the only other serious contender in the fray is the Bahujan Samaj Party. The party has held a good number of public meetings, with both Kanshi Ram and Mayawati targeting the resettlement colonies. The Janata Dal's presence is insignificant: it has only one MLA. The Left parties will field a few candidates.

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