2007 MCD elections stoke fears

EDIFICE OF ILLEGALITY

The Delhi assembly's scramble to repair the situation as far as the massive demolition activity is concerned need raise no eyebrows.

Residents of unauthorised colonies and slum clusters and owners and commercial area encroachers have long thrived on political patronage. The need for housing and commercial space has found expression in politically-supported land grabbing.

Eyes are on 2007, when the municipal polls are to be held in Delhi. The Congress sweep in March 2002 was in reaction to the fact that the then urban development minister Jagmohan had initiated a sweeping drive to remove unauthorised constructions (partly, also due to some unpopular tax measures in the Budget).

While that made Jagmohan popular with sections of the middle classes, the stratum which votes in the MCD polls summarily rejected the BJP in the 134-member municipal body. The Congress swept that poll with 110 councillors, while the BJP managed only 18, with the rest going to independents.

"The same public is now going to vote us out," said an MLA from the Outer Delhi parliamentary constituency area from the Congress. For the party, due to the peculiar nature of the distribution of assets between the municipal body and the state government, controlling the MCD is important.

The MCD controls land, property tax, parking lots, health centres, hospitals, etc, and the Delhi police control the law and order directly under the Union home ministry. The state government controls revenue and excise along with sales tax, but it hardly amounts to the Rs 8,000 crore revenue collection they represent.

The Congress is banking on the fact that the opposition BJP has never had a constituency among slum clusters, and after the exit of Madan Lal Khurana, who had voiced strong reservation against the demolition then, has not been an effective opposition.

Within the Congress there is a view that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has mishandled the court cases at the High Court, leading to this unpleasant sequence of events. That is, however, a far-fetched argument, but the danger to her chair remains, with detractors within the party saying that the present impasse shows her disconnection with Congress' traditional vote bank.

"This is by far the biggest challenge yet to Diskhit's leadership; she weathered first the CNG storm wherein a court-imposed switch from diesel to CNG was proposed for public transport vehicles despite heavy opposition from the powerful transport lobby.