)
The elite South Delhi constituency may see caste and community play an important role, even as rookie AAP volunteers are banking on door-to-door campaigns and BJP on the 'Modi wave' to wrest the seat from Congress.
Though South Delhi constituency had a large number of upscale areas, following the delimitation exercise in 2008, villages, slums and resettlement colonies dominate the landscape of the parliamentary seat that was secured by Congress in 2009.
Set for an electrifying fight, all the three prominent candidates -- Ramesh Bidhuri (BJP), incumbent MP Ramesh Kumar (Congress) and Devinder Singh Shehrawat (AAP) have dived in headlong into the campaign.
Once a BJP stronghold, the South Delhi Parliamentary seat contains 10 Assembly constituencies -- Bijwasan, Palam, Mehrauli, Chhatarpur, Deoli, Ambedkar Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Kalkaji, Tughlakabad and Badarpur. Seven of these were won by BJP and the remaining three had gone to Aam Aadmi Party in the December Assembly polls.
These constituencies face problems like lack of infrastructure development while water and sewerage issues dominate the non-regularised colonies.
A number of residents said local issues will weigh heavily on their minds while exercising their vote.
The delimitation exercise had changed the profile of the South Delhi seat to a great extent as most of the South Delhi areas had been included in New Delhi constituency.
In the 2009 polls, Kumar had won the seat by defeating Bidhuri by 90,000 votes. Kumar was nominated by Congress after his brother Sajjan Kumar was denied ticket in 2009 due to his alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The constituency, which in 2004 Lok Sabha polls saw Dr Manmohan Singh losing to BJP's Vijay Kumar Malhotra, now has over 16 lakh voters. Out of this, around 1.4 lakh are urban voters.
The Gujjars and Jat voters dominate a number of Assembly segments in the seat. The constituency has a total of 42 villages out of which 18 are dominated by Jats and 12 by the Gujjar community.
Bidhuri is a prominent leader from the Gujjar community while Kumar represents the Jat community. AAP's Shehrawat is also from the Jat community.
Shehrawat, along with scores of AAP volunteers, is engaging in door-to-door campaigning to seek people's support.
Bidhuri has been holding almost 10 corner meetings daily and largely been highlighting BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's "agenda" for the nation.
"The Sheila Dikshit government in the 15-year rule did nothing for South Delhi constituency. There has been zero development With a focus on how to solve drinking water issues and
develop roads in the area, Shehrawat, a former army man, said he was in the process of finalising a water-reservoir plant system to address the nagging problem of drinking water.
The caste factor had proved decisive in the Assembly polls in the area but AAP's Shehrawat appears unfazed by the division of votes on the basis of caste lines.
"I have been an army man all my life... For me personally and for AAP, all electorate is the same, though they might have different problems. I do not think caste will play a major role in voting in Delhi," he said.
Bidhuri, an MLA from Tughlakabad, who was defeated by 90,000 votes in the last Lok Sabha polls by Kumar, said he would not be overcome this time.
"Congress is not a credible party now and it showed in the Assembly election that they are no longer a viable option for Delhi people. Aam Aadmi Party has shown people that it is incapable of governing. When they were given the chance to govern, they ran away in 49 days," Bidhuri said.
He is counting on "wholehearted" support from women.
"A lot of women are supporting us. We have women coming to us with problems of inflation and price rise. During Vajpayee government inflation was 4-5 per cent and it has increased to 12 per cent due to Congress' policies," he said.
The BJP leader also hit out at AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and accused him of having a "hidden agenda".
Both the AAP and BJP candidates said that, if elected, they would open more government hospitals, colleges and improve the condition of roads in the South Delhi areas.
Incumbent Congress MP from South Delhi, Kumar, however, seems to have impressed not many people with his work in the past five years.
According to the government records, Kumar could not even properly utilise MP-LAD funds. He managed to spend only Rs 3.71 crore till date out of a total sum of Rs 10.32 crore allotted to him by the Union government. (MORE) PTI SHL MPB KSR in this area, which is completely neglected. Considering that the International Airport also comes under this area, it's a shame that nothing has been done to even maintain the roads," claimed Shehrawat.
