Says the BJP candidate from the parliamentary constituency Ramesh Bidhuri
Says the BJP candidate from the parliamentary constituency Ramesh Bidhuri
Water, electricity and roads are some of the promises that candidates are making to the people of what once was the most posh constituency of Delhi.
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Helping hand: BJP Candidate Ramesh Bidhuri addressing the audience at Bamnoli villageu00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0 PIC/SUBHASH BAROLIA |
Denizens of South Delhi may have been cursing delimitation, which has added all the villages that were under the erstwhile Outer Delhi parliamentary constituency to South Delhi.
The BJP candidate Ramesh Bidhuri puts it as: "Ye sirf naam ka South Delhi hai" (It is South Delhi only by name).
As this correspondent hit the campaign trail with Bidhuri it was evident that both the demography and geography confirmed the BJP candidate's comment about his battleground.
As soon as the convoy went beyond Vasant Kunj, the urban setting gave way to villages with dusty roads, fields and minimum infrastructure. It looked a different state altogether. Once the bastion of Congress' Sajjan Kumar - the Outer Delhi constituency, which had all these villages like Bamnoli, Bijwasan, Mehrauli, Kapashera and Mahipalpur have now become the part of South Delhi constituency after delimitation of parliamentary constituencies.
No wonder the issues here are 'sadak, bijli, pani' as they would have been at any rural constituency.
Bidhuri visited the villages near Vasant Kunj, Palam and Mahipalpur. "Only around 12 per cent of my constituency is urban otherwise it consists of rural population.
For the last 30 years people here have no government hospital or colleges. If someone falls sick here they have go o Safdarjung hospital which is about two hours drive from the villages of Palam and Mahipalpur," Bidhuri explained.
When he was asked about the e-age tools like blogging to reach out to the voters, Bidhuri quipped, "Almost 88 per cent of my electorate is rural. Blogging doesn't work here."
At the poll meetings, hookah-smoking villagers gathered at the village chaupal demanded the very basic amenities like a government hospital and college. "We have been deprived of basic facilities by successive governments. We don't feel we reside in the national capital. The politicians in the past so many years have not been able to provide us even a government hospital," said the 'Pradhan' of the Bamnoli village in Kapashera.
