Delhi Assembly polls: It will be battle of prestige in Chandni Chowk seat

Although the Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency is the smallest in Delhi in terms of electorate, however, it has been one of the most prominent for political parties here.

Part of the old city, the constituency has been mostly dominated by the business community and so is considered an important area for the parties.

Famous Delhi markets -- Khari Baoli, Darya Ganj, Faiz Bazar, Kinari Bazar, Nai Sarak, and Naya Bazar are part of the constituency.

Areas including Dariba Kalan, Fateh Puri, Jama Masjid, Kashmere Gate, Chandni Chowk, Khyber Pass, Lal Quila and Yamuna Bridge, are located in the constituency.

The key battle to win the Delhi assembly elections and the Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency will be between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

Among the 70 Delhi assembly constituencies, Chandni Chowk has elected either Congress or the BJP since its formation in 1993 but the picture changed in 2015 Assembly election with the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party.

While Congress ruled the constituency between 1998 and 2015, the BJP was in power between 1993 and 1998.

In 2015, the Aam Aadmi Party fielded Alka Lamba, a former Congress leader who had joined the AAP then.

She bagged the seat for AAP but had been disqualified as the MLA in 2019 after she rejoined the Congress last year.

It is worth mentioning that the four-term Congress MLA Prahlad Singh Sawhney, who was elected in the 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013 elections, had joined the AAP in 2019.

While the AAP is eager to retain the seat, which the party had won along with 66 other seats in 2015, the Congress will try to regain the lost seat.

The constituency is also crucial for the BJP as it has been out of power from the seat for more than two decades.

The political parties have not named their candidates yet.

Even for the general elections, the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat has been held by either the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Aam Aadmi Party gave a tough time to Congress and BJP in 2014 when it pushed the Congress to third position in the results.

However, in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress came second while the AAP candidate lost its deposit.

Part of the Central Delhi district, the Constituency may see a tough fight between the three parties this time, similar to the last two assembly elections.

In 2015 Assembly polls, the AAP bagged 67 out of 70 Assembly seats and its vote share jumped to 54.34 per cent. The BJP's vote share was 32.19 per cent, while that of Congress was 9.65 per cent.

Lamba, who contested from AAP in 2015, bagged the seat that time by getting 49.35 per cent of the total votes.

Sawhney, who was a Congress candidate in 2015, came third after AAP and BJP and got only 24.07 per cent of the votes.

39-year-old Lamba was the sole female candidate from the seat in 2015. Also, she was among the six women who were elected to the Delhi Assembly.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, the Congress had secured a vote share of 24.55 per cent, the BJP had secured 33.07 per cent vote share and the AAP had secured 29.49 per cent. The AAP and the Congress had joined hands to form Arvind Kejriwal's 49-day government.A

In 2013, all the 15 candidates from the Chandni Chowk seat were males.

During that time, Congress' Sawhney, won the seat by bagging 37.77 per cent of the total votes.

BJP's Suman Kumar Gupta came second with 25.95 per cent votes. AAP's Vikram Badhwar came third and got 21.96 per cent votes.

Delhi will go for polls on February 8 and the results will be out on February 11.

(Nivedita Singh can be contacted at nivedita.singh@ians.in)

--IANS

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